This is sometimes a bad thing, as it means I was unable to take a pass on The Phantom.

Heeeeey. I liked that one.

I love HTSAM.

Definitely better than Charade.

Saw Manchurian Candidate last night and liked it quite a bit. I found myself favoring Angela Lansbury's icy evil and subtle sexuality over Meryl Streep's bombastic performance, but I still appreciated that Streep was trying to reinvent the role instead of copying it. Liev was good and extremely woobietastic--he quietly broke my heart in the scene where he runs into Jocelyn (and learns that his single grand passion has been nothing but a youthful folly on her part) and during the heart-to-heart with Ben in his office. And I loved that Rosie had her own agenda--Janet Leigh's Rosie in the original has always struck me as a tad too conveniently sympathetic ear.

Denzel impressed me the most though. I'd always felt that he had an innate ability to instantly command a room in whichever role he played, but in this, he seemed shrunken, small, and broken, and believably so.

The movie was also a neverending parade of familiar character actors. I had Hey, It's That Guy-itis by the time the flick ended.

I'd always felt that he had an innate ability to instantly command a room in whichever role he played, but in this, he seemed shrunken, small, and broken, and believably so.

I thought he was believably so, but appropriately inconsistent. Sometimes you could see the Major, sometimes you could see the man. Sometimes you could see what it had all done to him. I loved that -- when he first is ignored by Shaw, his face shifts from businesslike to crushed to something inbetween in a scant second. I loved that moment.

Is there a pull for the movie besides the cast and being a special effects extravaganza?

More often than not, SFX movies suck ass, but every once and a while, they don't. Look at the original Star Wars for example. (And on the whole, SW didn't really have the cast thing going for it).

Potentially, I see a lot of similarities between Sky Captain and Star Wars; specifically, a young director who sees the full potential of making movies with new technology and runs with it.

Hey, I loved that Miguel Ferrer plays a character named Garrett. So funny. Not exactly the Tony Danza syndrome -- but similar.

I just saw a commercial for it, and i had no idea...Alien vs Predator is a real thing? I thought it was a video game. It's really a movie? Is it supposed to be funny?

Alien v. Predator is many things, including, I think, a video game. Most recently, a movie upon which I heaped disdain.

Then I noticed it starred Sanaa Lathaam, Colin Salmon, and Raoul Bova.

Huh.

Oh. So it's good then.

It has the makings of a classic.