OK. Better than The Good German. But not great, not what it’s trying to be.

Felt this was a very PHYSICAL acting role on Matt Damon’s part, similar to what Heath Ledger did in Brokeback. It wasn’t just in the way he talked, but in the way he walked with his shoulders hunched, the way he stared, the way he always seemed to have one eye looking over his shoulder. You constantly felt the burdens he was under.

Robert DeNiro was great, think he may have underused himself here. Alec Baldwin continues in his string of recent very welldone supporting roles. Angelina did a good job decaying of unhappiness. William Hurt was just as icky and creepy as you can imagine, and honestly he might need to do a “good guy” role sometime again soon or I might not be able to watch him on screen much more!

Movie covers a LOT of ground, about a 25- to 30-year time period, with flashbacks and jumping back to present. I liked the transitions / B&W slowly into color. Thought there were a couple of twists done wrong / i.e., when there’s a big “reveal” of a bad guy: it has to be someone you care about. Otherwise it’s thrown away.

Didn’t love it. But did make you ponder some things. Like how the fucko rich boys in skull&bones have fucked the shit out of our country and aren’t they still continuing to do so. But that’s really a different topic isn’t it?

Long and slow. A lot to take in.

A nice try, but some problems, probably in the script, that make it unsatisfying in the end. Clooney’s character is a reporter, so you’re thinking he’ll DETECT what’s going on and be the one who figures things out. Uh, No, not so much. Everything that happens seems to take his character by surprise which was a) not really believable and b) made the story not work so well.

Plus, honestly, could little tiny Tobey Maguire, using ONLY ONE ARM, beat the crap out of George Clooney? In what world? (Clooney gets the crap beaten out of him a lot in this flick.)

Cate Blanchett was good. Beau Bridges was good (haven’t seen him in anything in ages, but he’s also brilliant in “The Fabulous Baker Boys”).

In contrast to Goodnight and Good Luck, where you may remember black & white film was used to its fullest crispest shimmeriest goodness, in this movie, it’s used to look like old news reel. Hence super contrasty / too dark in some scenes / washed out in others. Went with the mood of the flick, but seemed like a WASTE to me. And something that will make MORONS talk about how B&W is bad, when this is just a bad example of it. Eh, what can you do.

Icky movie where lots of icky things happen. Bruce Willis is good in it, but why not watch a movie where he’s good and the icky things are less icky? 16 Blocks, for example.

Total chick flick. But harmless and cute. Nothing wrong with spending a couple hours watching an (oddly tan?) Jude Law.

Third storyline (old dude next door) kind of thrown in arbitrarily.

But enjoyable.