Honestly, I wanted to see this movie, but I fell asleep as soon as it began. That had nothing to do with the film but the fact that I was tired. I was out of town for work and could not sleep well at my hotel. By Wednesday, I was beat. I decided that the only way I might get any sleep was to go to the movies. I arrived at an arbitrary time and saw that the film would begin in ½ hour. So, I bought a ticket and went in. I waited the half hour and at show time the ads and previews began. Finally, as the film was about to start, I drifted off.

From what I did see of the film, it looked to be a pretty good geo-political thriller.

Good Sequel to the first Underworld film that picks up right where the first film ended.

It was pretty well panned by critics.

This film plays like a throwback French thriller from the 60's. I thought they moved past making oblique films with sparse dialog and unpredictable behavior and started making films that are more engaging.

Films like Intimate Strangers and even With a Friend Like Harry have been more satisfying.

I liked the unusual look of this film and feel that it is a credible comic book style action film.

With films like this, Aeon Flux, and (soon) V for Vendetta; they just need to have enough action to keep the story moving, they can have obscure and simple story lines, and a good look and they'll be okay.

Mila Jovovich is a good female action star but what's with the thing in that guy's nose?

Based on events that occurred in 1930's and 1940's England, Judi Dench plays a rich widow who opens a theatre for variety acts. When business slows, she hits on the idea to feature nude women.

Fun film with good music and interplay between the Dench character and Bob Hoskins as her theatre manager.

Classic samurai pic starring Tatsuya Nakadai as an ex-samurai who inserts himself into some local clan intrigue.

Clever film for its time.

The story is of three WWI fighting units who decide to call a local truce among their trenches on Christmas Eve 1914. The fraternize and give aid and comfort to one another but are ultimately punished by their own sides for showing a bit of humanity towards one another.

Nice story, but I wasn't as moved by it as I might have been. The opening scenes of A Very Long Engagement are more stark and seemingly real. This film felt too sanitary even while it attempted to depict violence. It seemed too staged. For instance, people are talking in the outdoors and in cold weather but you cannot see their breath.

Based upon a graphic novel, this is a film that one shouldn't analyze too much. It works in the context of a near future movie so long as you don't start asking questions about stuff that happened off screen anyway.

I plan to see it a second time, in IMAX.

Art School Confidential

I'm a Leadership Circle member for my local public radio station in Chicago, yet I will not listen to the station between 5:00 and 7:00 PM on Saturdays when A Prairie Home Companion airs. I do not like the show. Its dated, home spun, 1940's radio show format is completely unappealing to me. I expected that the movie might work and, for me, it did. Even though the movie intertwines with the radio show I thought it worked because of the story and fine performances.

Would I watch a weekly teleplay of the radio show? No! But, I liked the film. Go figure.

Dysfunctional family unit sets out on an ill-fated road trip to California (from Arizona) to have their young daughter appear in the "Little Miss Sunshine" pagent.

After a series of misadventures, the movie ends at the pagent with a very funny scene. But ... this is no formula Hollywood film!

[42nd Annual Chicao Film Festival] (see above) The director was given a lifetime achievement award by the film festival for his work in animation. The audience was mixed. It featured children with their parents. Young people (high school and college age) some of whom were in costume, or had blue hair. Some were giddy over the prospect of being only a few feet away from the director and most seemed to be quite passionate about the series.

I had never seen it before, though I've heard of it. The films were intelligent. They were a bit hard to follow but were epic, on the scale of the Star Wars trilogy.

[42nd Annual Chicao Film Festival] This is the story of a black man in England who quits his job in computers to become a teacher in a mostly black secondary school. He's trying to respond to the community needs that have expressed there are not enough black male teachers who can be role models for the students.

He tries to challenge the students in a way he thinks is right, but it all goes wrong and, through the rest of the film, he struggles with his own discomfort of being a black person who is not comfortable being around other black people. There is a lot of humor in the telling of this story that touches on some very serious perspectives.

[42nd Annual Chicao Film Festival] Two people meet at a party in Chile, then spend the next 24 hours in a hotel, mostly in bed, and never leaving the room. Aside from making love, they talk and learn about each other. There are secrets uncovered. I thought the movie ended exactly when it should, which can be rare. I remember at one point thinking, the movie should end right now, and it then went to black, so I guess I agree with the filmmaker on that point.

Where I think it failed was that it didn't break any new ground. It was not a poor film but simply was not a great film either. I rated everything I saw at the festival a "4" out of a possible "5," except this film , which I rated a "3."

I was in high school, then college in the latter part of the seventies. It's the time when IdiAmin Dada was in power in Uganda. He was a notorious butcher and the world wondered what could be done to stop him.

This film, based upon a novel, features a riveting, truly frightening portrayel of Amin by Forrest Whitaker. The story itself is fictionalized in that it features a Scottish doctor who travels to Uganda then falls under Amin's spell.

However, we know that Amin is not a fictional character and one thing that allows the viewer to cope is knowing that Amin does meet his demise ... though not before butchering 300,000 Ugandans.

This movie is getting panned by many critics and yet I thought it was beautifully presented and that the film's treatment of its parallel stories was fairly well constructed. I am a fan of Pi, the filmmaker's (Darren Aranofsky) first movie. I was really looking forward to this film and that can easily set one up for disappointment, but it did not disappoint.

I had an opportunity to see this at the Chicago International Film Festival and I did not as it was on a Monday evening and would have been difficult for me to get to and get home from. After seeing it, I regretted that I had not taken the opportunity to se it among people who would likely appreciate the film for the work of art that I believe it to be.

Certain scenes, especially those of the future, are so richly depicted that I would compare them with stunning works of art.

After seeing this film I thought that it might readily transcend to other media, meaning that it is only a movie as a product of our time. In other contexts, it might be an epic oral history narrative, or a novel, or paintings or even sculpture. The tale and its depiction are worthy of other art forms but I am glad that it is a movie because it captures, for me, a very evocative dramatization of its theme, the search for eternal life.

In Spanish with English subtitles, this is a French / Spanish co-production. It's a modern story of intrigue where most everyone is bad but you still root for the central character.

This man has epilepsy and passes out from time to time. These episodes are the references to the aura. You get the idea he has a shady past and would be willing to commit crime but is not currently involved in anything underhanded.

He accidentally kills a man in a hunting accident and soon realizes the man he has just killed was in the planning stages of a major crime with a gang but the gang members do not know the identity of the mastermind.

So, he inserts himself into the crime planning and the spiral begins ...