The presence of so many great actresses kept me interested in this one, despite the reviews, but in the end, Roger Ebert’s assessment of (I’m paraphrasing) “a movie to cry in, that doesn’t make you cry” was correct. Seemed to be many different motivations going on, leaving things convoluted and not necessarily making sense.

Some good performances (some = eh) but too many moving parts / too many subplots that crisscrossed or were dropped. A lot of regret and contemplation of the past, and while one character seems insistent on that meaning everything, another character tells her it means nothing.

Had potential, but definitely fell short.

This is one of those movies with so many absurd plot twists and coincidences that you just have to decide to GO WITH IT if you don’t want to be driven crazy.

Harvard b-baller (Adrien Grenier) is sleeping with Girl A (the daughter [Sarah Michelle Gellar] of a mafioso) and Girl B (his philosophy professor [Joey Lauren Adams]). When he needs $$$ from Girl A and fixes a b-bball game to get it, the FBI (Rebecca Gayheart and Eric Stolz!) comes after him. Fortunately Girl B is currently engaged in a menage à trois with those same FBI agents and is able to help him out. There’s also an LSD subplot and lots of (actually interesting) philosophy lectures and musings.

It’s a quite a (wackjob) trip but I found it very entertaining. Plus it starts w/ a fairly hot sex scene. So there you go.

Wow, Edith Piaf’s childhood was really awful. Not sure, at least from the way the movie played it, whether she ever really got over it. Thought the movie was very well done, some really impressive performances. Wondered about the point of the timeline jumps. Is the end meant to be more profound since we keep returning to it over and over? In some movies (Memento, Run Lola Run, etc) the nonlinear progression of time has a reason. Here, it didn’t seem to add anything to the story.

Well worth seeing. A long movie that didn’t FEEL long at all – unlike other recent viewings, two and a half hours passed by without notice.

All three of these movies suffer from an overabundance of slickness. The boys are all nice enough to look at, but otherwise it’s a lot of posturing. Felt this entry in the series actually lacked some girlie action (i.e., actual “relationships” as the Ellen Barkin character is just a mark and not anyone Linus actually cares about) that might’ve made it more human.

Entertaining enough for a nice air conditioned break from the heat, but nothing special.

Better than Pirates 2, not quite as good as Pirates 1, but certainly enjoyable. The “many Johnnies” scenes were entertaining, but I could have done without them: they didn’t really lend anything to the plot (and certainly added to the overall length of an already long flick).

The ending was actually quite poetic and lovely. A half hour (or more) shorter and I would be wholeheartedly in favor.

Totally terrifying. Just as good as the first one.

I do get more scared in horror movies than the average person, however, so take it with a grain of salt.

But the best part? “Stringer Bell”* on the big screen. He is mighty, mighty fine to look at.

*the character he played on The Wire.

Written and directed by, and starring, Amber Benson. Also starring James Marsters!! Has some very typical “first movie/low budget/indie amateur” effects: characters speak directly to the camera, the lighting is bizarre, timeline is the furthest from linear it could be, character development is touched on very lightly, etc. But there are a few charming moments, a couple sweet scenes. And the actors not only interact nicely, but the main two do a particularly good job of NOT being reminiscent at all of who you are expecting them to be together. Here’s a random (lengthy) online review if you’d like.

Yes, I must be on a “Tara” kick as I’ve been reading her writing as well: Totally sucked in by Ghosts of Albion!!

How could I have forgotten that I had seen this movie? Lots of lovely ballet, cheesy teenybop romances and soap operas. Anorexia! Injuries! Broken Hearts! And the battle against modern dance! All the highlights of any good ballet movie. Although there is a Russian among the dancers, the brash cocky American is really the one modeled on Baryshnikov. If only he were as good looking!! Particularly enjoyed the performance of Sascha Radetsky, who I’ve actually seen perform with the ABT. But, especially watching it now as opposed to when it came out, very hard to believe this didn’t come out until 1999/2000. Feels very ’80s/Flashdance/Footloose. Of course these ballet vs. dance movies never get old do they – Julie Stiles did one even more recently than this. 🙂

I remember my youthful days as a ballerina well. I would probably tear my Achilles or break an ankle were I to try any of those moves today!!