Guy Pearce...

I have a feeling will never be a box-office draw of any kind. It's certainly not for his acting ability, which is very, very good. So good that it can take a film like "First Snow", and make it more than watchable, even compelling. It's not a film that other indies haven't traveled down before; discovering for one reason or another that your life is going to end at certain point, and the inner-turmoil of the mind and body that follows along with the actions that result from it. Well worth the watch for both Pearce and a for-once restrained J.K. Simmons.

Grade: B

Please...kill me

No, I didn't sit down and re-read Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain's excellent oral history of the first half of punk. No, I came down with the flu over the weekend and was feeling like death. So I turned on Fox for the Sarah Connor Chronicles (hey, give me a pass, there is no "24" this year) and what do you know, there is good ol' George coming out to give what is thankfully his last State of the Union address. Apparently he now wants to preserve his conservative legacy...so trying to work with Congress is something he ain't gonna do. Beautiful. It's really not that G.W. is stupid (you can't win twice and be stupid), it's that he just doesn't care.

I can't tell you...

what you already should know by now. That Daniel Day-Lewis is the finest actor of this generation. That if I was stuck on an island with only the films of two actors to watch, it would be him (and Philip Seymour Hoffman). I could go on. Pointless. The bottom line is that "There Will Be Blood" is everything you thought it would be and more. Go see it. Now.

It's not that bad...

I know, I know. You want to hate this one really bad. Not as much as I hate blogger right now for wiping out my 4 paragraph review about 3 minutes ago! Is this a sign I'm not supposed to come back? Anyway, yes, "Lions for Lambs" is a bit talky and and could easily be viewed as preachy at times. However, it is actually worth giving it a view with an open-mind, if nothing more for the dialogue exchanges between Cruise and Streep. And Andrew Garfield actually holds his own with Redford. The third act featuring Michael Pena and Derek Luke in Afghanistan with the military falls a bit flat and at times the rhetoric may have you rolling your eyes, but the message about what can we do about changing the direction of the country/world is one that should not require a party line.

It really doesnt...

Willful ignorance does not equal an intelligent opinion

R.I.P.

Heath Ledger (1979-2008)