Seven Pounds:   Mystery layered on top of mystery.  A writers challenge, but they pulled it off!.  It would be a disservice to say anything about the movie itself to avoid spoiling the surprise - as was done by the New York Times in awarding the movie a undeserved F grade. But the Times has been issuing false reports.  Let's just leave it that marine biology, rocket science, MIT, diet and romance all play a role.  It was the first time we every had three ushers corner us on the way out of the theater to discuss plotting.  They liked it and so will you.   

Valkyrie: Plays like a good spy flick with strong performances. An enjoyable, heavy but worth-seeing movie.  Tom Cruise's  American accent does seem odd against the British accents of the other actors, but having him do an English accent would not have worked.  Great sets, direction and acting all around.

Bedtime Stories with Adam Sandler was a surprise treat!  Part of the trend of family movies that have been coming on strong the past year or so.  The trailer did not do it justice, and, in a sea of competitive holiday dreck it was a delight. 

                                                                                                                                                                                            Pablo and Kat McGregor

 

"Soul Men"     We're Dying As Soon As We're Crying

   

"I hope he didn't die of anything serious" and "Niagra goes down; Viagra goes up" are two jokes you won't hear in this gem from M.G.M. (right) with Bernie Mac, Sam Jackson supported by Issac Hayes. 

      The critics from New York really liked and really hated this movie.  A.O. Scott of the New York Times called it a raucous comedy and he's right.  Lou Lumenick of the New York Post treats it as a morbid posthumous piece and he's wrong.

      The movie's premise is based on death,  which is ironic in view of the death of Mr. Mac and Mr. Hayes.  But both were working until shortly before their deaths, a good way to go.  Don't read the Post review, it gives too much away.  Just go see the flick.  It's the best movie released in Clearwater this week.  - Pablo

                                                 Clint's "Vision and style

      This excerpt from Yahoo's Jim Basil about Clint Eastwood's "Changeling" is right on the money.  Roger Ebert of the Chicago-Sun Times loved it for the feelings of emotion it created in him.  None of Yahoo's 12 major critics hated it, but a few were lukewarm, yet still moved.  The face of Angelina Jolee "Belongs on stained glass as much as it does on the movie screen" according to Wesley Morris of the Boston Globe.

     It's not a slasher movie.  But it does portray ax murders, death by hanging, psychiatric abuse and torture, non-consensual body cavity search, kidnapping by homicidal maniacs, kidnapping by L.A. policemen, retail theft, deportation, false impersonation, and a lack of due process of law.  

     The dialog was a bit expository, but is offset by superb direction, acting, set dressing, costumes, lighting, music and sets.  

                                                                                                                                        That's not my boy! 

     Don't make the mistake that this shows what life was like "Back then."

     It's the perfect movie for people to learn what life is like now.

         Pablo and Kat McGregor, Senior Reporters for Exemplary Arts 

      

     James Cromwell, in the part of George H.W. Bush, aptly sets the theme for this moving picture from Oliver Stone.  E'Review’s Chris Farnsworth hated it and called it a “Overlong SNL sketch.”  Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times loved it as a “Tragedy of a victim of the Peter Principle.”  I think the truth lies somewhere in between.