[del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Fark] [Google] [LinkedIn] [Mixx] [Newsvine] [Reddit] [Slashdot] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Email]
Two Weeks Notice

Having a sibling is always a great source of amusement. One can do just about anything reasonable and be forgiven. But strains can show at the oddest times. George Wade (Hugh Grant) is a slacker. He’s unwilling to take the family business seriously and chooses to hire his lawyer models who graduate from caribbean law schools. Howard Wade (David Haig) is getting fed up and he wants George to get his act together George, in an act of brotherly retribution, pays him back for this dressing down by flushing the toilet while Howard is in the shower. I still chortle every time I see this. But then I’m a softie when it comes to fart jokes. Sigh…


Director:  Marc Lawrence; Lawrence
Writer:  Marc Lawrence; Lawrence
Cast:
Sandra Bullock -  Lucy Kelson
Hugh Grant -  George Wade
Alicia Witt -  June Carter
Dana Ivey -  Ruth Kelson
Robert Klein -  Larry Kelson
Heather Burns -  Meryl Brooks
David Haig -  Howard Wade
Dorian Missick -  Tony
Joseph Badalucco -  Construction Foreman
Jonathan Dokuchitz -  Tom
Veanne Cox -  Melanie Corman
Janine LaManna -  Elaine Cominsky
Iraida Polanco -  Rosario
Charlotte Maier -  Helen Wade
Katheryn Winnick -  Tiffany
Jason Antoon -  Norman









[del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Fark] [Google] [LinkedIn] [Mixx] [Newsvine] [Reddit] [Slashdot] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Email]
The Tailor of Panama

I’ve has bosses who want results, no if, ands or buts. Just do it and don’t bother me with details. So I gave them results, albeit fabricated results but they never figured it out. Why would they? They didn’t care. They were pressured from above just like me. But mine didn’t have any impact on people’s lives, no losses for anyone came about. It was about filling out bureaucratic paperwork.

Andrew Osnard (Pierce Brosnan) is in the same boat as my boss. Except he’s a British spy in Panama and he picks Harry Pendel (Geoffrey Rush), an supercilious tailor serving the Panamanian elite. Harry claims to be a transplant from Britain’s renowned Saville Row, but he is really an ex-con who served five years in prison for an insurance scam and up to his nose in debt. Osnard will pay for information Harry has gathered from his upscale clientele. When he has run out of info, Harry starts concocting tidbits to keep the cash coming but makes the mistake of getting too grandiose in his lies which include his wife, Louisa (Jamie Lee Curtis), an aide to the Canal director. All of a sudden, London and Washington are interested and Harry is sweating.


Director:  John Boorman
Writer:  John Le Carré; Andrew Davies; John Boorman
Cast:
Pierce Brosnan -  Andrew ‘Andy’ Osnard
Geoffrey Rush -  Harold ‘Harry’ Pendel
Jamie Lee Curtis -  Louisa Pendel
Leonor Varela -  Marta
Brendan Gleeson -  Michelangelo ‘Mickie’ Abraxas
Harold Pinter -  Uncle Benny
Catherine McCormack -  Francesca Deane
Daniel Radcliffe -  Mark Pendel
Lola Boorman -  Sarah Pendel
David Hayman -  Luxmore
Mark Margolis -  Rafi Domingo
Martin Ferrero -  Teddy, A Reporter
John Fortune -  Maltby
Martin Savage -  Stormont
Edgardo Molino -  Juan-David
Jon Polito -  Ramón Rudd, The Banker









[del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Fark] [Google] [LinkedIn] [Mixx] [Newsvine] [Reddit] [Slashdot] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Email]
The Terminal

Jazz fans are a fevered lot. I’ve met a couple who travel the world to find particularly obscure recordings and hear their faves play live. Such musical dedication should be rewarded for it is keeping music alive and well. Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks), who is from Krakozhia, an eastern bloc country that overthrown by rebels during his flight, finds that he now holds an invalid passport, leaving him stranded at JFK in New York. Unable to leave, one of his new airport friends, Amelia Warren (Catherine Zeta-Jones), learns the purpose of his visit is to collect an autograph of the jazz tenor saxophonist Benny Golson. His father had discovered the “Great Day in Harlem” photograph in a 1958 newspaper and vowed to collect autographs of all the 57 jazz musicians. He go all but one in 40 years.


Director:  Steven Spielberg
Writer:  Andrew Niccol; Sacha Gervasi; Jeff Nathanson
Cast:
Tom Hanks -  Viktor Navorski
Catherine Zeta-Jones -  Amelia Warren
Stanley Tucci -  Frank Dixon
Chi McBride -  Joe Mulroy
Diego Luna -  Enrique Cruz
Barry Shabaka Henley -  Ray Thurman
Kumar Pallana -  Gupta Rajan
Zoë Saldana -  Officer Torres
Eddie Jones -  Salchak
Michael Nouri -  Max
Jude Ciccolella -  Karl Iverson
Corey Reynolds -  Waylin
Guillermo Díaz -  Bobby Alima
Rini Bell -  Nadia
Stephen Mendel -  First Class Steward
Valera Nikolaev -  Milodragovich









[del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Fark] [Google] [LinkedIn] [Mixx] [Newsvine] [Reddit] [Slashdot] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Email]
The Thirteenth Floor

I’m a sucker for production design and this movie has some of the best I’ve seen. The portions set in 1937 Los Angeles are remarkable for their style, tone and nuance. I keep popping it back into my DVD player just to enjoy. But I must admit I was taken aback seeing Vincent D’Onofrio as a blonde.


Director:  Josef Rusnak; Chris Roach
Writer:  Daniel F. Galouye; Josef Rusnak; Ravel Centeno-Rodriguez
Cast:
Craig Bierko -  Douglas Hall/John Ferguson/David
Armin Mueller-Stahl -  Hannon Fuller/Grierson
Gretchen Mol -  Jane Fuller/Natasha Molinaro
Vincent D’Onofrio -  Jason Whitney/Jerry Ashton
Dennis Haysbert -  Detective Larry McBain
Steven Schub -  Zev Bernstein
Jeremy Roberts -  Tom Jones
Rif Hutton -  Joe
Leon Rippy -  Jane’s Lawyer
Janet MacLachlan -  Ellen
Brad Henke -  Cop #1
Burt Bulos -  Bellhop
Venessia Valentino -  Concierge
Howard S. Miller -  Chauffeur
Tia Texada -  Natasha’s Roomate
Shiri Appleby -  Bridget Manilla









[del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Fark] [Google] [LinkedIn] [Mixx] [Newsvine] [Reddit] [Slashdot] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Email]
Three Kings

We all know that war is hell. The deprivation, the firing of guns, the taking of orders, the lack of proper sanitation. All contributes to making it at best uncomfortable. But then sometimes there are those who know how to make it a little less miserable. With two weeks to go before he retires, Major Archie Gates (George Clooney), a decorated Vietnam vet and special forces officer and his two buddies, Troy Barlow (Mark Wahlberg) and Staff Sgt. Chief Elgin (Ice Cube), discover a map retrieved from the butt of an Iraqi soldier which may lead to a Kuwaiti gold stash stolen by Saddam Hussein’s forces. Using the UV setting on his flashlight to discover the location, they decide to follow the trail and take some of it for themselves. You gotta love American technology.


Director:  David O. Russell
Writer:  John Ridley; David O. Russell
Cast:
George Clooney -  Maj. Archie Gates
Mark Wahlberg -  Sfc. Troy Barlow
Ice Cube -  SSgt. Chief Elgin
Spike Jonze -  Pfc. Conrad Vig
Cliff Curtis -  Amir Abdullah
Nora Dunn -  Adriana Cruz
Jamie Kennedy -  PV2 Walter Wogaman
Saïd Taghmaoui -  Capt. Said
Mykelti Williamson -  Col. Horn
Holt McCallany -  Capt. Van Meter
Judy Greer -  Cathy Daitch
Christopher Lohr -  Teebaux
Jon Sklaroff -  Paco
Liz Stauber -  Debbie Barlow (Troy’s wife)
Marsha Horan -  Amir’s wife
Alia Shawkat -  Amir’s daughter