chakoya gave breaking all the rules a thumbs up...

yes

Monica gave Before Sunset a thumbs up...

Before Sunset—An Enriching Movie Sequel

Written by Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, and Julie Delpy, directed by Richard Linklater

Nine years ago, a 23 year-old American, Jesse, and a French student, Celine, met on a train, felt an instant connection, and spontaneously decided to spend a night in Vienna. Parting the next morning, they promised to meet again six months later on the same track at the station. Viewers were left wondering whether this reunion would ever happen. 1995s “Before Sunrise” was not a blockbuster, grossing about $5 million domestically since its release, with a production budget of $2,5million. Hence, a sequel would not be motivated by the idea of profits as so many other sequels opening this summer. “Before Sunset,” again directed by Richard Linklater and starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, was made because the director and actors were interested in Jesse’s and Celine’s lives, because they had never laid these unique characters to rest. In “Before Sunset,” they pick up where they left of in 1995. Again, the two protagonists are walking and talking. This time Paris provides the backdrop for their true-to-life conversations that are unusual in movies. These characters are as real as your next door neighbors are. While time has changed them, they look older, have matured, left college life behind, and have settled into professional careers, their personalities and interests have stayed the same, illustrating the suggestion Jesse’s character makes that people stay the same all their lives. At heart, optimistic people will remain optimistic even if they should become paralyzed in an accident, in the same way pessimistic people will continue to have a negative outlook on life even if they should win the lottery and become millionaires. Jesse is still fascinated with religion. In “Before Sunrise” he talked about the Quaker religion; now he shares a story about his visit to a Buddhist Monastery. Celine is still a fighter for the betterment of the world, now working for an environmental agency. While the first film condensed the 14 hours the two spent together into one-and-a-half hours, “Before Sunset” chronicles their 81 minute reunion in real time. Here lies the brilliancy of this movie. Excellent real-time cinematography, especially when the characters are walking through a real city as opposed to strolling on a soundstage, is hard to achieve. Yet the way these two characters are captured in 5-7 minute long takes is breathtaking. In the same way, Hawke and Delpy proof their excellence in the art of acting. They had to memorize pages of scripts that they had to deliver in one long take and have it look spontaneous. The script itself is one of the finest written. It truthfully captures the awkwardness of meeting someone dear to your heart who you have not seen for some time. At first, the characters hide behind standard phrases—“How are you?” “Fine.”—but slowly begin to reveal their true feelings, leading closer to the questions viewers of the first film want answers to: did they meet again six months later on the track? What happened in the past nine years? Are they meant to spend their lives together? While the first film captured the young adults’ feelings of freedom and endless possibility, this film tackles the questions whether the dreams one once had have been fulfilled and whether one has successfully made the transition into real adulthood with all its responsibilities and schedules. In “Before Sunrise,” both characters became aware of the fact that their night together is special, that their time together should officially not be happening. She was supposed to arrive in Paris and meet a friend for lunch, but canceled it to stay with Jesse. Does this type of spontaneity still exist in adult life, and if not, are the routines and schedules of a career and parenthood fulfilling replacements? This, of course, leads to the biggest question of all: will Celine and Jesse start a life together, regardless of all the obstacles that accumulated over the past decade? While one can enjoy the film without having seen the original (flashbacks are provided at the beginning of the film), one will only fully understand what Jesse and Celine mean to each other when having seen “Before Sunrise.” (Renting this film from your local video store before heading to the movie theater for the sequel is the best solution.) “Before Sunset” builds onto, enriches, and carries forward this unique tale of two strangers who met by chance on a train. It is a story everybody can relate to and that could be returned to every ten years, just as the “7 Up” documentary series by Michael Apted which chronicled the lives of 14 British citizens every seven years. “Before Sunset’s” script is so true to life that one can hardly tell a difference between the fictitious Jesse and Celine and the real individuals captured in “7 Up.” It is time that Richard Linklater is acknowledged as one of the greatest American filmmakers, bringing a realistic, enjoyable movie experience to theaters.

Jessie gave RATS & BULLIES a thumbs up...

I saw this movie with a couple of friends in Santa Monica at a film festival. It was very good and made me cry. I felt so bad for the girl, Dawn-Marie Wesley. She had been bullied by girls she knew and they threatened to kill her. She didn't beleive anything would happen to them if she told on them and so as a final resort she killed herself. The movie shows how sad the family was and even how sad one of the bullies was.

The story took place in Canada. I've never been there, but I guess there laws are similar to those in the USA. But they had never charged girls for bullying before. This case set a president where now more girls are arrested. It also had the lady who wrote the book that "Mean Girls" was based on. She talked about how girls bully each other and why as well as giving ways to stop it. Fortunately I have never been bullied seriously, but I have seen others getting pushed around or teased. The movie talks about that to - like the role of the "bystander". They should show this movie in school to everyone in my 10th grade class.

Anthony gave We Were Soldiers a thumbs up...

We Were Soldiers is a film based in 1965 during the first years of the Vietnam War. Mel Gibson plays the main character in this film his name is Lt. Col. Hal Moore, he is a man that's born to lead and is completely committed to getting his troops home as safely as possible. Moore is the commanding officer of a platoon of air cavalry troops; before going to battle Moore promises that he will leave none of his men behind whether they were dead or alive, he told them that they would all go home together. Lt. Col. Hal Moore is a Catholic man with many religious values, he is married and has five children.

In We Were Soldiers the story not only revolves around the American soldiers who go to war against the North Vietnamese Army, but it also focuses on the wives of the soldiers and the Vietnamese soldiers involved in this war. As soon as Lt. Col. Hal Moore takes control of his platoon of approximately 450 air cavalry soldiers he begins to learn what they are like and trains them himself. He also served in the Korean War with his Major, played by Sam Elliott who does a great job acting as the hardcore no nonsense officer who is always by the side of his commander. Gibson, Elliott, and their soldiers all belong to the 7th Air Cavalry, the 7th Cavalry is the same unit that Custer led into the battle of The Little Big Horn. We Were Soldiers can be viewed as a film that is a Vietnam War version of Custer's last stand. The only difference is that in this film Custer beats the odds with only about 400 men on his side Lt. Col. Hal Moore manages to defeat the Vietnamese in the end and makes it out alive, but he doesn't win alone he has the help of artillery and helicopters from an American base nearby. One of the most important things that Moore said in this film was that he would be the first to step onto the battlefield and the last to step off. He stayed true to his word, when the American soldiers first landed at the battlefield it showed his foot was the first to touch the ground. At the end after everyone else had left and the chopper was waiting for Moore, he got onto the side of the chopper and took his foot off of the ground, he was the last to leave.

This is a pretty good film overall, but it does lack in some areas. It has better character development then Black Hawk Down, but the action is way less intense then Black Hawk Down. Also it's hard to keep track of where exactly everyone is in the battle, it's hard to tell in what direction everyone is in according to Gibsons character and how far away the other squads are from Gibsons squad. This movie is a good movie for people who love watching Vietnam war movies that deal a lot with the emotional side of war from many points of view.

Dan gave Monster a thumbs up...

I have always held firm in believing that the death penalty is a justified, and indeed, necessary, part of our criminal justice system. Similarly, I have always thought of serial killers as "monsters" who prey upon the innocent in the dark of night. Going into Monster, the new film by Patty Jenkins, I expected to get just such a portrait of Aileen Wuornos. After all, Wuornos was dubbed by the media as America's first female serial killer and executed in 2002. What the film reveals about her, though, is much more unsettling than a soulless beast. Life has chewed Aileen up, spit her out, and wiped its feet on her remains. Idealism she desperately clung to in her younger days--clung to in spite of increasingly insurmountable roadblocks to normality--has been forcibly extinguished.

Charlize Theron gives the best female performance of the year in capturing Aileen both physically and emotionally, in both cases a wreck. The film opens with a suicidal Aileen sitting in the rain getting ready to snuff out her existence. Having five dollars left from her last john--her only job since her early teens has been prostitution--she enters, unknowingly, a lesbian bar to have a final drink. She struts into the place with a gruff and manly persona, an obvious mask to hide the cowering child inside. A younger and more obviously vulnerable Selby (Christina Ricci) immediately is attracted to her. Aileen quickly opens herself to Selby and develops perhaps the first real human connection of her life. Aileen may or may not be gay, but following her experiences, a woman is the only person with whom she can possibly relate.

Both Aileen and Selby are on the run, Aileen from a job that is killing her every day and Selby from a father who can't accept her as she is. Their relationship is far from perfect, but each represents to the other a hand to hold when the silver lining we are told lies in every cloud turns out to be, in fact, lies. They have a taste of fairy tale happiness, going roller-skating and then making out behind the rink. We wish they could be transplanted into a more hopeful situation. But life comes crashing in, and purity disappears.

Aileen is brutally raped by a john, and probably saves her life by grabbing a gun from his car and killing him first. In stealing the rest of his money, Aileen envisions using that seed to grow a life for herself and her new girlfriend. She springs Selby from the family her father sent her to and they run off to a motel together. Aileen, searching for any straight job available, tries to wedge herself into a society she's never been part of and that coldly rejects any advances she attempts. Selby, seeing the idealistic mirage starting to fade, explodes at Aileen one night thereby pushing her onto exactly the wrong path.

Returning to hooking, Aileen goes out day after day, then returns with a new car and wads of cash. Selby initially may not see what is happening, but soon becomes an accomplice in enabling Aileen to continue this bloody and tragic method to get a leg-up on life. But even as the murders continue and sloppiness begins to put the couple at risk, one never loses sight of Aileen's humanity and the underlying motive of her crimes. She wants enough money to be able to stop selling her body, live an actual life with Selby, and maybe even be accepted by the rest of the planet. The fact that she has been used her entire life has blinded her to all rationality and sense; she's been trained to believe that the only way to get ahead is to use other people.

Aileen cannot be forgiven for committing her murders, which should go without saying. But, at the same time, how much culpability can be placed on the shoulders of a person who never received a moral compass and whose only education was victimization? If a dog is beaten by its owner in puppy hood and shown no love, can one possibly be surprised when that dog becomes a vicious adult? If there is nobody willing to guide the victimized back onto the right path, the outrage we rightfully feel when blood is spilled may be tragically misdirected.

Final Film Grade: A-

Brittany gave Chicago a thumbs down...

I think Chicago was one of the worst movies of the century. We didn't even finish it, we hated it that much.

Broadwaypoetess gave Chicago a thumbs up...
"The scenes went from the streets of Chicago to a stage, and amid the bright lights, there was a dark side of our society being shown. the judical system favors certain people..the death penalty)."

Meg. gave The Lion King on IMAX a thumbs up...
"I'd give this movie a 10. It was alot better than 'Spirit', which was really boring and politicaly correct. I loved young Simba! It is the BEST MOVIE EVER!!!!!!"

Meg gave Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron a thumbs down...
"Its' really boring and politicly correct. Tons of people say it was really good, but they had no reason to. The reviews say it was better than The Lion King, but I think The Lion King id better by 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles."

Kaitlin . gave City by the Sea a thumbs up...
"This is a good movie for a calm night. It was pretty sad."

Sylvia gave FRAILTY a thumbs up....
"Lovely, evil, scary and thought-provoking. A psychological tickler--very realistic performances by all of the actors in this movie headlined by Bill Paxton in the role of the father, (THE TORMENTED SERVANT CHOSEN TO RID HIS PARTICULAR PART OF THE WORLD OF EVIL) and his two sons living in a small rural town who find their lives turned upside down by a sudden "divine revelation" to Bill Paxton, in the form of a vision; an "Angel" sent by God...He believes that God inspired him to make a "list" of names of the people whom he is directed to kill because of a particular sin in their lives. He justifies this by serving up the notion that the people chosen to be murdered are not actually people, but "demons", and when he touches them, he can actually see their wicked deed. They may look like you and me, but they are not actually human beings. This movie is particularly disturbing because he draws his young sons into this delusion, much to their horror, and orders them to accompany him to do "God's Will"......the ending is surprising and exceedingly wicked.....it gives us delectable food for thought. See it."