Movie Log 2007: #62-69


Hollywoodland - Liked the George Reeves A-story; could have done without so much Adrien Brody subplot. BTW, how does Brody, who's all nose, sire the kid in the film who's all ears?

Sicko - While Moore generally preaches to the choir when I see one of his films, I do find it ironic that he made his bones with a movie about a corporation laying off thousands of workers, yet if he gets his healthcare wishes, how many healthcare employees get their walking papers?

Transformers - Do I have any right to be disappointed in a movie I flat-out knew would suck? As bloated as this was, only about 40 minutes were devoted to big robots clobbering each other. Most of the time they were in their cheaper boring car form. Ah well, it was nice to have the truth about Herbert Hoover come to light at last.

The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai - So this Japanese sex worker gets shot in the head, and the bullet in her brain makes her a supergenius, then gets caught in a fight for the cloned finger of GW Bush. Endearingly low-budget -- at one point a cutaway scene set in the US is enacted with action figures.

For Your Consideration - This felt like a Waiting for Guffman remake. My favorite character was the meteorologist/ventriloquist with the monkey puppet. I'd watch that morning show.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - I tend to like the Potter movies slightly better than the books, because there's usually a subplot I find tedious in the books (most notably house-elf emancipation), and I think Rowling's not all that as a writer. This was the first film I found disappointing. It felt too cursory, rushing from one set piece to the next. I'm not sure what I would have added, though. Luna's casting was quite good; there was great potential to make the character Drusilla-level annoying.

Breach - This and Hollywoodland prompted "who's that woman?" moments - it was Caroline Dhavernas in both cases, reminding me I need to finish watching those Wonderfalls discs. This was quite good. The director again manages to coax a great performance out of a lightweight actor (this time Ryan Phillippe; previously it was Hayden Christensen in Shattered Glass).

Dreamgirls - Pretty good considering I loathe Jennifer Hudson's singing style, and all the songs were completely unmemorable. I bought Beyonce (mostly because I don't know much of her regular career). I had a hard time buying Eddie Murphy as anything other than Eddie Murphy. Speaking of which, what's with the Norbit trailer on the DVD? Why not just kick Murphy in the nuts a few times?