Kids - 3 stars

Kids is painful to watch. It's like Black Velvet with children. The movie is really well done - great script, great directing, great acting, but the subject is aweful. The worst part is that it's probably all true. Maybe not always and all of the time, but certainly unattractive boys are lying their way into bed with 15 year old virgins and groups of kids are beating the crap out of any random who crosses their path. I had no way to rate it since I didn't enjoy it, so I just gave it a 3.

Wild Things - 3 stars

I was expecting Wild Things to be trash, but it was pretty good. Starring Kevin Bacon, Matt Dillon, Neve Cambell and Denise Richards, it provides several surprises. All 4 of the principal actors were solid, but Kelly's mom wasn't. The direction was one of the best parts, with lots of visual clues telling the story - like mom and daughter slamming the door at the same time to demonstrate how much they are alike. I also liked how the common folk always knew more about what was going on than those who were supposed to be in the know. One more thing, Bill Murray plays the lawyer, so there is some humor, too.

It's quite adult and racy - not for those who are easily bothered.

Little Miss Sunshine - 4.5 stars

Go see Little Miss Sunshine! It's a clever, refreshing, and totally surprising heartfelt comedy. Only once does it take the obvious, easy out - which turns into something fresh. There are physical scenes in this movie that make the top comedy scenes I've ever seen. The cast is excellent with Toni Collette, Alan Arkin, Steve Carrell (playing a serious role), Greg Kinnear, plus 2 fabulous young newcomers.

This movie has been described as filled with eccentrics. I disagree. The cast of characters are real people with eccentricities that all of us have and sometimes expose.

It's a rare winner of a film.

The Devil Wears Prada - 3.5 stars

The Devil Wears Prada was a nice surprise. It's a fun story of a brainy college grad who takes a job she thinks will be something to keep her busy while she finds something respectable. She's the personal assistant to the editor of Runway Magazine (aka Vogue), which turns out to be the monster job. It's the eternal struggle between feeling challenged & valued and balancing your personal life, but it's freshly told in a way that will appeal to the masses.

Meryl Streep is, of course, excellent. Anne Hathaway is forgivably overacted. The HOT Adrian Grenier (Entourage) makes an appearance as well.

Ali - 3 stars

Ali was a good movie that could have been great. It had all the elements of a great movie, but didn't quite fulfill any of them. The acting was pretty good, but not great. Will Smith at times embodied Muhammad Ali, but at times fell into his own voice. Jon Voight was brilliant as Howard Cossell. Cossell was charming with great timing. I had no idea it was Voight until I saw the closing credits, even after seeing his name on the opening credits.

The story started off brilliantly, with wonderful visuals to put you in a time of race wars. Then it jumped around with no explanations. MLK was killed in a scene with no previous mention of him, without saying his name, or any other mention of him again. It was very confusing.

It does paint a picture of Ali as a smart man with a huge heart, a super-hero of a kind. I wish I had seen this before I saw Ali himself at LAX a few years ago.

The Girl in the Café - 3 stars

There are some real strengths and weaknesses of the Girl in the Café. The story is about a lonely, shy man with a very stressful job who falls for a lonely girl (there's about a 30 year age difference) that he meets, well, in a café.

Strengths: the acting is very good. I enjoyed both leads Bill Nighy and Kelly Macdonald. They have cute accents, which is always a winner. The characters are well drawn and provide some surprises. The filming was excellent. They do a great job creating visual effects with costumes and angles. For example, Lawrence was feeling left out of the group, so he was the only one dressed differently, his chair was pulled back slightly from the circle, and his feet were turned in. I also liked the ending.

Weaknesses: the characters made the same painful mistatakes over, and over, and over. I hate that. The story was stagnant through about a third of it. Also, I didn't buy how someone as weak as Lawrence can end up in such a high powered job. He's pathetic.

So, overall it was fine, but not great. I wouldn't watch it again.

Batman Begins - 3.5 stars

Batman Begins stars the always hot Christian Bale (amazing in Laurel Canyon). It's an excellent superhero story, good acting (except the overrated Katie Holmes), good special effects... It was much better in the theater, but still a very good watch at home. I'm looking forward to the next installment due in 2008 which will keep most of the stars including Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman (one of my favorites) and Michael Caine.

Barbershop - 1 star

Why was this movie a hit? Barbershop has poor acting and not much of a story or character development. Pass.

Transamerica - 4.5 stars

Transamerica is a one-of-a-kind film about a pre-operative male-to-female transsexual. An almost unrecognizable Felicity Huffman plays Bree brilliantly. You really think she is a man successfully passing as a woman, with help of hormones and preliminary surgery. With a story like this you expect some horrible tragedy, like she's outed and gets beat up. To the filmmakers' credit, the story keeps true to the experience of an individual struggling to find her voice. The special features, especially the full commentary, are worth watching as well.

Freaks & Geeks (TV) - 4 stars

Freaks & Geeks is set in 1980 in high school reality, not the schmaltz you see on most sitcoms that are supposed to be high school. The main characters are kinda burnout/losers who are actually kinda cool and a bunch of nerds, like real high school students. The parents are pretty good too. It's well acted, with the best work coming from geek #3, Bill. He's definately a star in the making as the nerdiest kid ever. It's not mindblowing, but a really good watch. Not everything is realistic, but I'm still sucked into the characters