074. (17 May) Weekend (1967, Jean-Luc Gordard) [A-]
073. (17 May) Son of Rambow (2007, Garth Jennings) [B-]
072. (15 May) *Flakes (2007, Michael Lehmann) [C] 
071. (10 May) Speed Racer (2008, The Wachowski Brothers) [B]
070. (10 May) Redbelt (2008, David Mamet) [B+]
069. (04 May) XXY (2007, Lucia Puenzo) [B]
068. (04 May) Breathless (1959, Jean-Luc Godard) [C+]

Yeah, I know, somewhat heretical, but at least now I know that everything
that leaves me cool about Godard -- the shallow rhetorical sophistry and the
complete absence of feeling toward his characters  -- was part of the package
from the get-go.
067. (02 May) Iron Man (2008, Jon Favreau) [B+]
066. (27 Apr) Priceless (2006, Pierre Salvadori) [B]
065. (26 Apr) Baby Mama (2008, Michael McCullers) [B-]
064. (21 Apr) *The Widow Couderc (1971, Pierre Granier-Deferre) [B-]
063. (20 Apr) /*The Taking of Pelham One Two Three/ (1974, Joseph Sargent) [A]
062. (19 Apr) *A Taste of Honey (1961, Tony Richardson) [B-]
061. (18 Apr) Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008, Nicholas Stoller) [B] 
060. (13 Apr) /*The Station Agent/ (2003, Thomas McCarthy) [B]
059. (12 Apr) *Dresden (2006, Roland Suso Richter) [B-]

For the curious, this is a German TV movie set during the Dresden fire 
bombing. Decent but unexceptional romantic drama.
058. (12 Apr) Smart People (2008, Noam Murro) [C+]

Decent performances (including the first non-irritating Sarah Jessica
Parker turn since the early 90's) keep this very marginally in mixed 
territory, but the script is saggy Indiewood hooey. 
057. (11 Apr) *The Water Horse (2007, Jay Russell) [B]
056. (10 Apr) Nim's Island (2008, Jennifer Flackett & Marc Levin) [D]

Wretched; tries to be a whimsical storybook fable and can't pull it
off, with the effect that all of its three leads don't come off as charming
but clinically insane. Foster comes off best; at least the movie realizes
she's nuts...
055. (09 Apr) *Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007, Jake Kasdan) [D+]

Pretty good soundtrack, but excruciatingly unfunny; the two good bits
(Dewey and his brother and the machetes; Tim Meadows's anti-reefer rant)
get beaten into the ground as they become plot elements.
054. (08 Apr) 10,000 BC (2008, Roland Emmerich) [B-]
053. (08 Apr) *The Rabbit Is Me (1965, Kurt Maetzig) [C]
052. (06 Apr) Leatherheads (2008, George Clooney) [B-]
051. (05 Apr) La France (2007, Sergi Bozon) [C-]
050. (05 Apr) My Blueberry Nights (2007, Wong Kar-Wai) [B-]
049. (02 Apr) Horton Hears a Who (2008, Jimmy Hayward & Steve Martino) [C]
048. (30 Mar) The Bank Job (2008, Roger Donaldson) [B+]
047. (29 Mar) The Toe Tactic (2008, Emily Hubley) [C-]
046. (29 Mar) Eat, For This Is My Body (2007, Michelange Quay) [B+]
045. (29 Mar) My Brother Is an Only Child (2007, Daniele Luchetti) [B-]
044. (25 Mar) *The Mist (2007, Frank Darabont) [C]

Should-be gangbusters premise, but pretty lousy execution -- the acting
extremely variable (though Toby Jones is rapidly becoming one of my favorite
character actors), generally incompetent direction (one good shot, though --
the tracking shot of heads turning towards Mrs. Carmody), and a screenplay
with some deeply unconvincing character psychology, though I suspect that
was a latent problem with the novella. 
043. (23 Mar) *Hitman (2007, Xavier Gens) [C-]

Eh. "Stylish" but empty action drivel, but more dull than insipid.
042. (23 Mar) Vantage Point (2008, Pete Travis) [B-]

Can't really defend this much, since its gimmicky plot structure 
gives it a saggy middle with the Noriega and Whitaker focused segments. Also,
would it be too much for a "why?". On the other hand, I did find it
thrilling in a Cheez-Puffs way.
041. (22 Mar) Boarding Gate (2007, Olivier Assayas) [C+]
040. (22 Mar) Snow Angels (2007, David Gordon Green) [C]

Anyone else think that Sam Rockwell is hideously miscast in this?
039. (12 Mar) *The Amateurs (2005, Michael Tragaer) [C+]
038. (08 Mar) Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008, Bharat Nalluri) [C-]
037. (08 Mar) The Other Boleyn Girl (2008, Justin Chadwick) [C+]
036. (05 Mar) *To Kill a King (2003, Tom Barker) [C+]
035. (02 Mar) *Mermaids (1990, Richard Benjamin) [B+]
034. (01 Mar) Be Kind Rewind (2008, Michel Gondry) [C]
033. (01 Mar) Violent Saturday (1955, Richard Fleischer) [C+]

Far more mediocre fifties melodrama than taut crime thriller; some
camp value in seeing Ernest Borgnine as an Amish farmer.
032. (01 Mar) Penelope (2006, Mark Palansky) [B]
s01. (01 Mar) *Hotel Chevalier (2007, Wes Anderson) [B]
031. (01 Mar) *Peter's Friends (1992, Kenneth Branagh) [B-] 
030. (25 Feb) *Blue Remembered Hills (1979, Brian Gibson) [B-]
029. (24 Feb) /*The Devil Wears Prada/ (2006, David Frankel) [B]
028. (22 Feb) *Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007, Shekhar Kapur) [C-]
027. (20 Feb) *I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007, Amy Heckerling) [B+]
026. (17 Feb) *The Smiling Lieutenant (1931, Ernst Lubitsch) [B]
025. (16 Feb) Definitely, Maybe (2008, Adam Brooks) [B]
024. (16 Feb) In Bruges (2008, Martin McDonagh) [B+]
023. (05 Feb) *The Jane Austen Book Club (2007, Robin Swicord) [C]
022. (03 Feb) *The Steel Helmet (1951, Samuel Fuller) [B+]
021. (02 Feb) The Witnesses (2007, Andre Techine) [B+]
020. (02 Feb) 4 Months, 3 Weeks, & 2 Days (2007, Cristian Mungiu) [A]
019. (02 Feb) *DOA: Dead or Alive (2006, Corey Yuen) [C]
018. (27 Jan) *Adrift in Manhattan (2007, Alfredo De Vella) [C+]
017. (27 Jan) *Moliere (2007, Laurent Tirard) [B+]
016. (26 Jan) The Letter Never Sent (1959, Mikhail Kalazatov) [B-]

If movies were judged by spectacle, visuals, and camerawork alone this
would be one of the greatest films of all time. Unfortunately, among the
forest fires (which are insanely realistic) and the wide-open spaces of the
taiga there's also a wispy plot involving geologists in a tepid love triangle,
which ends up getting dropped for rather routine (plotwise, at least) 
man-against-the-elements stuff. 
015. (26 Jan) The White Sun of the Desert (1970, Vladimir Motyl) [B]
014. (26 Jan) Battleship Potemkin (1925, Sergei Eisenstein) [A-]
013. (25 Jan) *The Hunting Party (2007, Richard Shepard) [B-]
012. (20 Jan) 27 Dresses (2007, Anne Fletcher) [B-]

Formulaic as they come plotwise, but Heigl and Marsden make fine leads,
Judy Greer is fun as the sarcastic best friend, and there's some good lines.
011. (20 Jan) Cloverfield (2008, Matt Reeves) [B]

Central "Blair Witch" conceit of film being a recovered artifact both
film's best and worst point; when it's concentrating on a ground-level 
view of Lovecraftian horror laying waste to Manhattan, the film is         
gut-wrenchingly intense. As film goes on, though, the conceit wears thin
(at least Blair Witch had the excuse its cast were self-absorbed film
students) and the characters a largely bland group of mildly irritating
non-entities.  
010. (19 Jan) Cassandra's Dream (2007, Woody Allen) [B-]
009. (19 Jan) Woman at the Beach (2006, Hong Sang-Soo) [C]
008. (19 Jan) Still Life (2006, Jia Zhang-Ke) [B]
007. (16 Jan) *The Heartbreak Kid (2007, Peter & Bobby Farelly) [D]

A betrayal of the things that I've actually liked about the Farellys'
films; instead of the usual undercurrent of screwy sweetness, there's only a
misanthropic cynicism. Their fondness for vulgar gags is still intact, but
when their most outre moment was both a) done on Friends 10 years ago,
and b) involves the fakiest merkin in the history of merkins, they've lost
their touch.
006. (12 Jan) /*Die Hard 2/ (1990, Renny Harlin) [B]

Enjoyed the hell out of this when I was 16, but it's a lesser version
of Die Hard without the extra kick of Alan Rickman's villain for
the ages. Still fun, though.
005. (07 Jan) *The Kingdom (2007, Peter Berg) [C-]
004. (06 Jan) *Bullitt (1968, Peter Yates) [B-]

Famous car chase scene is justifiably so; but otherwise it's a police
procedural whose biggest asset is the late 60s vibe. The one or two
attempts at "meaning", however, are laughable. 
003. (06 Jan) *Bug (2006, William Friedkin) [C]
002. (05 Jan) Anatomy of a Murder (1959, Otto Preminger) [A-]
001. (05 Jan) Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007, Tim Burton) [B+]