Running with Scissors - 2 stars

This movie is perfectly named. Watching it really felt like Running with Scissors. This film has some great performances and some wonderful moments (check out the stills on imdb), but it's still painful. Annette Benning stars as a dysfunctional mother married to absent alcholic father Alec Baldwin. She abandonds her misfit teenaged son with her even crazier shrink and his family including Gwyneth Paltrow. This film tries to combine the non-stop dry humor of The Royal Tenenbaums and the mysticism of the magic Magnolia only to fall flat on it's face. It's major saving grace is that it's a true story. I wonder if I would have liked it more had I known that at the beginning. Jim & I almost walked out, and we saw another couple leave. By the way, I think this shot is an homage to the absolutely brilliant Harold & Maude (if you haven't seen this one, run, don't walk, to your nearest video store).

Running with Scissors opens nationwide on 10/27/06.

Little Children - 3 stars

Little Children is a good film that fails to be great. As usual with major studio films with big stars, the acting was very good and it was well shot. However, it was too long in parts (aka it dragged) and most importantly the very dramatic stories fell flat at the end. Here you have complex relationships with interesting characters, then all of a sudden they go, "Oh, I guess I'll stop doing that thing now," then finish going about their day. Jackie Earl Haley's perfomance was Oscar worthy as a pedofile.

The movie poster and preview don't exactly represent the film. It is a bit creepy and sexy at moments, but primarily it's a film about relationships, family, and personal struggle. The trailer had me expecting a horror film.

In theaters now.

The Accidental Tourist - 2 stars

I watched the Accidental Tourist because I just read the book. The book is great, the movie sucks. It's quite difficult to translate a slow, character-driven story to the big screen. Plus, the casting was all wrong. For example, Gina Davis who can't pull off quirky and dishoveled, they needed more of a Lily Taylor. Gina is better at white trash (see Thelma & Louise).

Skip it.

The Departed - 4 stars

The Departed is a near perfect Boston/mafia/cop movie. The all-star cast really lives up to it's potential, a rare find. Leonardo DiCaprio seems to have come into his own, Matt Damon has perfected the young smarty, Alec Baldwin is always brilliant, Mark Wahlberg steals the show as an obnoxious cop, Martin Sheen is classic, and Jack Nicholson is over the top crazy. On top of all that, it's hilarious. It's a mafia movie so there is some violence, which isn't all that bad. There is a ton of foul language, mostly coming from Wahlberg, which is one of the funniest things about it. Definitely a must see, but it's not necessary to see it in the theater. If you haven't seen Little Miss Sunshine yet, go see it with a crowd before it's too late.