Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith

Four Stars
Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christensen

Details coming soon, for now, WOW! What a great movie!

Finding Neverland

Three and one half stars
Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet

This was a wonderful movie in most every respect. A story based in reality regarding a beloved tale with a creative exposition of the plot. The supporting cast was excellent and executed thier jobs beautifully.

The only thing that kept me from granting this film a four star rating was the overuse of artful forshadowing. The climax of the film is impending for quite some time and there are several instances that lead you to belive that a poetic end has come to the film. There were enough that when that ultimate poetic end arrives, it was less distinct and powerful than it night have been otherwise.

Hulk

One Star
Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly

Wow, what a crappy movie. The plot is bloated, the motivations hollow, the story boaring and Bana and Connelly are HORRIBLE in this movie. They perform as though they have a permanat haze around them, forcing them to speak in a intospective monotonous voice.

In contrast the supporting cast is over the top and unrealistic, becoming aggrivating and irritiating by the end of the film. Ang Lee let me down in this film as he tried to conquer a "Mulit Point Of View" layout in many sequences. The seemed to me more of a mickey mouse reach at a unique feel than a full fleged vision. Hannah wondered if he was trying to bring a comic book feeling to movie. If this was the case, it would have been more worth while to make a good movie, than remind the audience that your movie is based on a comic book character.

Kill Bill: Vol. 1

Two Stars
Uma Thurman

I was excited to see Kill Bill (1) and anticipated a love affair with this movie so many people had raved about. I think however that the only people who saw this film must have started out Terentino fans, becasue this, his latest directorial offering, left me like his other films - feeling mediocre.

Kill Bill (1) felt like Pulp Fiction on steroids with a twist of kung fu. Terentino takes you on one his patented flashback roller coaster rides. For me this served to make my overall view of film favorable, but make the smaller sections distracting and confusing. It's always entertaining to see how he rolls everthing up at the end though, and in this case, it was more intriging to see him forshadow the second half of the saga, Vol. 2.

The best part of the movie was The Bride's pilgimage to Japan to seekout a renown blade maker. This portion of the film carries some great comedic interludes and is punctuated by Japaneese martial arts mysticisim with overtones of samurai honor and religious devotion.

Relative Values

Two and one half stars
Colin Firth, Julie Andrews

Relative Values is realativly enjoyable. A comedy manners based on the glory days of Hollywood and the englishman's view of the industry as it collides with the propriety of thier world. Julie Andrews is really the saving grace in this film. She offers a compelling performance and warms your heat even when being brash. Playing Andrews Nephew in the film, Collin Firth is the perfect sounding board for her without being lost in her lime light. Firth is delightfully boisterous in a role similar to others he's played.

There are many gems in this film and perhaps that's the real joy in watching becasue the plot is not thick, and the resolution not unique. In fact I rated this film a low as I did becasue it hugs tightly to a genre for it's bread and butter. There is little appeal if you are not a fan of films involving english nobility, thier servants, and the quirks of these relatoinships.