Birthday Girl - 2 stars

I had high hopes for Birthday Girl because it stars Nicole Kidman and Ben Chaplin (the English hottie from the adorable The Truth About Cats & Dogs). The acting was fine, but the story was lame. It's one of those stories where the hero has obvious ways out of the problem, but makes really stupid decisions that no one would make. It could have been surprising and thrilling, but is boring and predictable. Don't watch this one.

Erin Brokovich - 4 stars

Erin Brokovich is the true story of a single-mom who leads the charge in one of the biggest lawsuits in US history. A California town's water was contaminated by PG&E, making it's residents sick with several types of cancer and many other diseases. Julia Roberts provides the performance of her career. Albert Finney, Daddy Warbucks in Annie, is a delight to watch as the tired and socially challenged attorney. The story is extremely well told. You experience the challenges with balancing career opportunities, parenting, dating, and risks. The actual Erin Brokovich has a cameo as a waitress. An overall great film.

Gandhi - 3 stars

Gandhi is an historic film. It's certainly a good movie, and beautiful. Ben Kingsley was brilliant. The film moves surprisingly fast for over 3 hours. All of this is known.

However, as an organizer I was disappointed that they didn't delve into his motivation, challenges, and growth. One day he was a rich lawyer who suffers a minor humiliation. The next day is he leading the revolt against British occupation of India. I'm exaggerating a bit, but you get the idea. You don't know what really made him from a man into "Gandhi."

Weeds (TV) - 4.5 stars

Weeds is a new tv series from Showtime about a suburban housewife selling pot in a wealthy California town. Really, it's about how to survive in suburbia. For example, the theme song is all about how every house and ever suburbanite is the same. Then you dig into the content of the show and the people are all distinguishing themselves in unique ways. It stars the rockin' Mary-Louise Parker (Fried Green Tomatoes, Angels in America), plus a bitchy Elizabeth Perkins, an actually clever Kevin Nealon, and a big ensemble cast. Excellent show. I can't wait for season 2.

Arrested Development (TV) - 4 stars

Arrested Development is a tv show starring one of my favorite then-teen stars, Jason Bateman. I know this isn't a movie, but I rented it on netflix and I make the rules, so I'm reviewing it here. This is a very dry, dark comedy about a family filled with overpriced losers and a straight-man, Bateman. It gets funnier and funnier the more I watch it. I recommend renting the first disk, and watching a few episodes from the beginning. One episode probably won't do it for you. Portia DeRossi and Jeffrey Tambor star with a variety of newcomers. One taste of the humor is the characters have names like Maeby, Gob which is pronounced like Job of the Bible and stands for George O. Bluth, and George Michael.

Thanks to Seraphim for recommending this.

Without Limits - 3 stars

Without Limits is a solid biopic/athlete flick. It's the story of strong-willed runner Steve "Pre" Prefontaine. There is another movie about him called Prefontaine starring the amazingly hot Jarod Leto. My favorite role of Jarod's is as a totally drugged out Harry in an awesome drug movie called Requim for a Dream. This is an amazing film that's not for the faint of heart. (Jim won't watch it.) Leto co-stars with Ellen Burstyn & Jennifer Connelly.

Anyway, the great Donald Sutherland plays the strong-willed coach trying to have an impact on the even more stubborn Pre. There are some good speeches, life lessons, and it's a generally good movie.

The Dinner Game - 1 star

The Dinner Game is the pathetic predescesor to the adorable French movie The Closet. A group of friends have dinner each week with the biggest losers they can find. Pierre finds a loser who ends up caring for him after causing an accident. The main actor is in both of these films, playing different characters, and the name of the loser is the same. Skip the Dinner Game, it's lame. Rent the Closet instead. It's in French with English subtitles about a guy who is so boring he's lost his wife, his kid, and about to lose his job. His neighbor convinces him to perform a stunt to make people take notice. It's very sweet and cleverly done.

Spirited Away - 3 stars

I had never seen Japanese anime before Spirited Away. I enjoy the form of animation because it can capture your imagination in ways that live action can't. You already have to suspend your disbelief to the extent to absorb the cartoon, so why not throw in some spirits and other characters or actions impossible to convey with actual actors. I enjoyed the Japanese cultural references and style. I also was riveted by the style for the first 45 minutes. After that, it started to drag. At that point we had been introduced to the main characters, the main challenges, and the main story. All that was left was resolving the conflicts, which took another 75 minutes. This is the same major flaw that I find in many stories, primarily in books.

Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit - 2 stars

This was really disappointing to me because I LOVED Chicken Run, which was made by the same people in the same claymation style. This Wallace & Gromit story should have stayed as a short. There wasn't a story that supports an hour and a half of film. Other than the lack of a continually engaging story, it was adorable.

By the way, a Were-rabbit is the rabbit form of a werewolf. It took me until the end of the film to figure that out...

Domino - 2.5 stars

Domino Harvey is Keira Knightley in a sort of true story of a model turned bounty hunter. She's smart, beautiful, and fearless. She's accompanied by her mentor, played by Mickey Rourke, and the very, very hot Argentinian Choco played by Edgar Ramirez. The movie is almost worth watching just to see him strip down to his skivvies in the laundromat. Overall it's fun and filled with eye candy, but the ending isn't as clever as it could have been.