To me, The Cell didn't really add up to much--but yes, very pretty.

Kate! My sistah! The only reason I didn't leave the theatre at Two Brothers is because my ride was into the movie. I sat in the lobby and read the book I'd brought. The friends I'd gone with were distraught. I had hurled so much invective at the screen and was beyond keeping it below a whisper, so I left. I enjoyed my book, and so did my blood pressure.

Now I realize Two Brothers is nowhere near the 'artistic' level of the other movie, but your reaction struck a chord nonetheless.

Agreed The Cell was pretty but incomprehensible in a silly and pretentious way. Then again, has there ever been a serial killer in movies who just strangled and dumped his victims in a ditch, without getting baroque (and thereby caught)? Probably not.

Pleased to see all this Manchurian love. The plot itself I can take or leave in some ways; but the signature Frankenheimer verve of the camera is what really sold me on it. I'm just a Frankenheimer nerd.

The Cell was beautiful but incomprehensible.

We watched Romy & Michele's High School Reunion last night. I had forgotten how incredibly goofy that movie is, but the ballet to"Time After Time" is brilliant. And Mira Sorvino should play Scarlett Johansson's relative, either an older sister or a Loralei Gilmore-esque mother.

Then again, has there ever been a serial killer in movies who just strangled and dumped his victims in a ditch, without getting baroque (and thereby caught)? Probably not.

Um, Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer?

That was a very creepy movie because it felt real.

I got home and walked out of Bubba Ho-Tep, so it just wasn't my night for enjoying movies. (BHT was on the DVD player.)

Then again, has there ever been a serial killer in movies who just strangled and dumped his victims in a ditch, without getting baroque (and thereby caught)? Probably not.

Um, Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer?

I *still* need to see that. But in the same vein, Rue Morgue magazine (which is a fabulous read for anyone interested in any aspect of the horror genre) says that a new British movie called The Last Horror Movie is a top-notch re-working of the serial killer movie genre.

I though Dark City would be great, but it turned out to be merely good. It's definitely Matrix-y before The Matrix (and there's a bit of The Thirteenth Floor in there too), but it doesn't turn into a rock-'em-sock-'em action flick. Instead, it chooses to be so drenched in noir I could actually see some noir seeping out of the TV and falling onto the floor. It felt rather silly in parts. Naming your villains after mundane nouns may look like a good idea on paper, but the Gentlemen were creepier when they weren't made to deliver dialogue in supposedly disaffected tones.

Alex Proyas had a neat idea, but he didn't think it through very well. I'm not the kind of guy who usually watches these movies and points out all the things that don't make sense (hell, the implausibility of Nemo's ship in League navigating the canals of Venice didn't occur to me during the movie), but I had a lot of questions with this one. And it tries to delve into the age-old question of what makes us human, but doesn't really break much new ground, especially when the basic tenets of the "experiment" are so confusing. Also, when your villains can fucking alter reality, I have a hard time believing they'd be helpless if their damn coat got stuck on something or they'd just watch their prey get away in a car.

Still, it of course has a nice production design, and Neil Gaiman really likes it. Plus, Jennifer Connelly is gorgeous like a thing that is gorgeous.

For 'way too real for comfort' serial killer fare, I recommend "Minus Man" with Owen Wilson and Janeane Garafolo (no kidding!). It is the creepideepiest in its plausibility. So disturbing.

I saw the Bourne Supremacy this weekend. (By the way, a little PSA: when you show up to a film on its opening night five-ten minutes before showtime, the best seats in the house are not, in fact, unoccupied. Please quit asking. Thank you.) The handheld camera & the editing was a little bit much at times, but I liked it nonetheless. I just rolled with the almost impressionistic scenes. (Bob couldn't stand the camerawork.) I would advise people planning to see it to sit way back.

This is the kind of movie that really revs my engine, so YMMV.