Earthsea

The Good:
As a long time fan of the Legend of Earthsea series by Ursula K. Leguin, I was excited to see this finally made into a visual media. Particularly with the success of Harry Potter, which is pretty much Earthsea with some minor changes - I was anxious to see the better of the two come to light.

Visually it was very well done for a Sci-fi Channel Original. Sometimes they can be quite a bit hokey in their effects.

Danny Glover was perfectly cast as Ogion. He was exactly what I had always imagined the character to be.

The Bad:
It was too short to get the full story. Far too much was left out or changed from the book for it to be in any way a true adaptation.

Ged was an amazingly powerful and complex character - and Shawn Ashmore did not in any way shape or form capture this. He was Iceman, again.

Equally disappointing was Kristin Kreuk as Tenar - who was easily washed away and lost against her much stronger female cast-mates.

All in all:
If you liked the books, avoid it - it will only break your heart.

Three... Extremes

The Good:
The second short - Dumplings - is one of the most horrible things I have ever seen in a horror film. It doesn't show much - honestly - but that is much worse because the things you imagine are so much more twisted than anything they could show you. I can't say more because it would ruin the surprise.

The Bad:
The first short - Box - and the third short - Cut - both leave much to be desired. Box tries to tell you a creepy story of retribution for past sins - but is just mediocre and somewhat pedophilic at parts. The third, Cut, has a good psychological basis ala Fight Club - but just never quite gets there.

All in all:
This is a must see simply for Dumplings. Even if you skip the other two - which are enjoyable if not completely successful - don't miss Dumplings.

Mean Machine

The Good:
Good in that Lock, Stock/Snatch kind of way.

A good ensemble cast - fun to try to pick out who you have seen where.

This is, without a doubt, my all time favorite Jason Statham role. He is maniacally brilliant as The Mad Monk. So much fun.

The Bad:
Though I love Vinnie Jones as well - this is not his best role - which is ironic since both soccer and being dethroned from soccer due to questionable actions are both things to which he should be very familiar.

The constant snotty spitting of the "mad-bomber" main villain made me nauseous numerous times.

All in all:
If you liked Snatch and other films in that line - then you will enjoy this as well. Even if you didn't watch it just to see Statham as Monk.

The Number 23

The Good:
Jim Carrey was excellent. I tend to like him more in his non-comedic roles as I think at times he can go too far with his comedy. This wasn't Truman Show as far as performance goes, but he was still very, very good.

The viewer can easily follow the path of his obsession - and find themselves drawn and starting to buy into it as well.

Both Virginia Madsen and Danny Huston were good in their roles.

The Bad:
The viewer can easily follow the path of his obsession - and find themselves drawn and starting to buy into it as well.

All in all:
Very entertaining - which is, I suppose, the ultimate goal of cinema.

Blades of Glory

The Good:
I am a sucker for Wil Ferrell. I think most of the truly big laughs I've gotten over the past 10 years have been due to his over the top chaos.

I also love Jon Heder and he is equally funny. The two are perfectly paired.

Craig T. Nelson as the fanatical coach, also a good choice.

The Bad:
I don't know if I can say anything was truly bad. I'm not a big fan of either Will Arnett or Amy Poehler, so I guess that's something.


All in all:
I didn't go into this expecting anything except a few cheap laughs - and thus I wasn't let down. Don't go into it looking for more and you'll be fine too.

The Host

The Good:
It really did have that fun B-movie horror feel to it, if you allow yourself to be taken on the ride.

The acting wasn't bad - neither were the effects.

It had an odd mix of scientific what-ifs mixed with Godzilla-esque b-movie horror goodness that I enjoyed.

The Bad:
I found myself not understanding the motivations of the main characters, nor caring very much whether they lived or died - which is always a bad sign to me.

I didn't really feel like any battle had been won at the end - but maybe I wasn't supposed to.

All in all:
Fun b-movie, just don't think too hard.

Cache

The Good:
The film had a very menacing, unsettling feel to it - and the pacing added to that brilliantly.

The Bad:
It was segmented.

This is one time when I really did feel that subtitles took away from being able to enjoy the movie. If you became focused on the subtitles - which unless you understand French you are going to have to do - then you missed a lot of the movie.

Another film with a convoluted ending. I hate those.

All in all:

I had high hopes for this back when I saw the trailers when it was in Cannes. It was pretty much a complete let down. Pretty much all the good stuff was packed into the trailers. Maybe if I understood French and could have avoided the subtitles I would have liked it more.