It’s almost not worth reviewing…Dodgeball is like a long Saturday Night Live skit, or the type of movie you put on while you are doing something else. There are a few very funny, physical-comedy scenes, but other than those bits, there’s not much to it. Rip Torn’s wrench chucking scene was the best part of the movie.

While on vacation this week, we went to see Brokeback Mountain. The movie tells the story of two young men – a ranch-hand (Heath Ledger) and a rodeo cowboy (Jake Gyllenhaal), who meet over the summer of 1963 while caring for a herd of sheep on Brokeback Mountain and their enduring relationship. In some ways it’s a modern “Romeo and Juliet” type tale of forbidden love, but of all the films I have seen that would fit into that category, this one seemed especially real. It was powerful, heartbreaking, raw and poignant. I have enjoyed Gyllenhaal in other films and anticipated being impressed with his work in this movie, but I was pleasantly surprised at strength of Ledger’s performance as well. Both men gave devastatingly moving performances. Additionally, the film is set against beautiful vistas of Wyoming and Texas. Overall, it’s a haunting and unforgettable film, worthy of the hype.

So today we saw the greatly hyped, 3-hour epic, Peter Jackson’s King Kong. With both dinosaurs and a big primate, it was pretty much a sure thing that I would like it… and now that I have seen it, I can confirm that I did enjoy it. There were scenes that definitely felt “Lord of the Rings-ish” to me, but I loved those movies, so for me, that wasn’t a bad thing. Naomi Watts was great, Adrian Brody was pretty good – but really, Kong stole the show. It was evident that Jackson spent a lot of time making him seem like a real silver-back gorilla. The movie had a little bit of everything – there was lots of action, some funny bits and some really tender moments as well. What I wasn’t prepared for was that I would be so affected by the film once it was over. If you’re going to see it, go see it in the theater – it’s worth it.

We recently saw Monster a dark, unsettling, and utterly depressing movie based on the true story of Aileen Wuornos (played by Charlize Theron), who was one of this country’s first female serial killers. Early in the movie, Aileen develops a relationship with a younger woman named Selby (played by Christina Ricci). The film focuses on the period of time during which Aileen, a prostitute, begins murdering her clientele and stealing their money for her and Selby to live off of. This movie was not easy to watch. However, Charlize Theron’s transformation into character was amazing. She was completely unrecognizable and her performance was outstanding. The Best Actress Oscar she won last year was clearly deserved.

I recently watched War of the Worlds on DVD. On the positive side, the effects (especially the first 30 mins of the movie) were amazing and I was lucky enough to be watching it in a top of the line home theater, with the volume up nice and high. However, besides the effects I was greatly disappointed. I thought Tom Cruise’s performance was weak and that Spielberg neglected to modernize the story in any interesting way. It looked like a 2005 movie, but played out like a 1950s movie…it didn’t work for me. BORING!

Aaron and I are both fans of the Harry Potter series, both the books and the movies. We recently saw and enjoyed the 4th movie, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I continue to think that Rupert Grint, who plays Ron, is the best actor in the bunch. And as with each of the previous films, I think the movie relies heavily on its audience having already read the book – which I suppose is probably a pretty safe assumption. That said, I loved the tournament trials and the addition of Ralph Fiennes to the cast as Lord Voldemort.

We recently saw Walk the Line, the Johnny Cash biography, with a group of friends and were not disappointed by the greatly hyped film. Although we all agreed the story itself is offered nothing new, the portrayals of both Cash (by Joaquin Phoenix) and June Carter (by Reese Witherspoon) were excellent. The most impressive moments of the film were those when Phoenix was singing – I’d say only Cash himself could have done it better.

We went to see A History of Violence last week. Although it felt a little heavy handed at times (illustrating the happy family, the small town, the bad men, etc.), it was generally an entertaining film. Viggo Mortensen was well cast and convincingly portrayed someone with something to hide. The movie felt almost vicious, but was compelling and full of tension. And although Viggo looked good, I still say he’s at his best with long hair, and covered in dirt and grime, i.e. Strider/Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings movies.

Sarah- We sat down Saturday night to watch Blood Simple. It’s an early Coen brother movie, so I had relatively high expectations – I loved Fargo and O Brother, Where Art Thou?, but this film proved to be a let down. The basic plot is a man hires a private investigator to kill both his cheating wife and her new lover and things don’t go as planned. My first complaint is that the movie is VERY slow moving (even Aaron admitted to that). As a result I started to get sleepy about 30 minutes into it and at the 45-minute mark I gave up and took a nap. My other issue is that during the portion of the movie I watched, I never became invested in any of the characters. I didn’t care to follow the story because I didn’t care about the fates of any of the players. Overall the movie was totally boring, but my nap was great.

Aaron- First off, the wife misquoted me. The beginning was slow. About a minute before things started to get interesting, Sah tuned out, so she missed the payoff. Anyway, my opinion of the film is quite different from hers. I found that it had an excellent story, very good acting (Frances McDormand is one of my favorites), and just the right sprinkling of dark humor that the Coen brothers are known for. In some ways it’s more pure than their other more recent films. It didn’t have a big budget, with well-known actors, and new cinematic technology. But they were able to beautifully convey what they wanted to with simpler techniques. If you like Coen brothers’ movies, I’d recommend this.
So, if you’re thinking about renting this film, you can consider my opinion, which was in part informed by consciousness, or you can trust a pile of snore.

My friend Richard and I are both big Ewan McGregor fans. So, a couple of weekends ago we went to the movies together to see Ewan’s latest film, Stay. The movie had been out for just over a week and it had already been bumped from some theaters and was down to a single showing in the big multiplexes…and now I know why. It tried to be artful, it tried to be metaphysical, it tried to be dark, but really it was just bad. There was of course the now expected “twist” at the end, but it made the few pieces of the story that actually worked together unravel more than come together, making the whole movie feel like a waste of time.