I moaned out loud in the theater during previews: "Why'd it have to be Nick Cage?!?" Because otherwise, cheesy Masonic secrets and Sean Bean put my butt in a seat.

I'm going to go see that stupid Nicholas Cage movie where he's a treasure hunter because Sean Bean's the bad guy in it.

I'm going to have to see it just because it looks like a big messy crazyheaded conspiracy theory nutfest with historical costuming and treasure maps and maybe even Knights Templar. The only thing that could possibly stop me from seeing such a movie would be if it starred Richard Chamberlain and Marc Blucas.

There are pretty much two reasons to see Equilibrium:

You forgot 5) Taye Diggs.

(But really, it's a movie full of beautiful people spouting overblown pretentious philosophy at each other and then fighting about it! What's not to love?)

What's not to love?

The fact that they're like "This is our plot!" and then "Wait, the plot's getting in the way! Red alert! Jettison the plot and blow shit up!"

But, what I really came in to say is that I just got back from a screening of Hero, and it's a million times more beautiful on the big screen, even with the crappy print, the too-dim projection, and the guy in front of me talking on his fucking cell phone throughout the entire film.

(I also feel I should mention that the scrolling exposition titles that bookend the film were added by Miramax for the American release. They were not on the bootleg version I saw last year, and they (a) make no sense (b) miss the entire point of the film and (c) don't even remotely look like they belong. So please, if you see this movie, which I highly recommend, ignore the exposition title cards.)

The fact that they're like "This is our plot!" and then "Wait, the plot's getting in the way! Red alter! Jettison the plot and blow shit up!"

If you re-examine my post, you'll find that I conveniently avoided mentioning the plot.

You forgot 5) Taye Diggs.

Yes, yes. All these were reasons I, too, agree with, but I had to narrow it down to to for effect.

The fact that they're like "This is our plot!" and then "Wait, the plot's getting in the way! Red alter! Jettison the plot and blow shit up!"

There wasn't nearly enough blowing shit up. But the fighting made up for it.

If you re-examine my post, you'll find that I conveniently avoided mentioning the plot.

This allays my fears that I would have to start calling you the Jessicurmudgeon.

Big Fish also made me tear up on second viewing. Though I'm fairly sure it did on first viewing as well.

I like that movie. Tim Burton's visual style is just so...awesome.

Signed,
Excited About Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

I loved it.

We saw "The Village" last night.

Both Bryce Howard and her character deserved a much, much betetr movie. And I don't know what the real age difference is, but Joaquin Phoenix felt too old for the part, and his character was really annoying. (Inman in "Cold Mountain" is the same idea, I think, only actually done well.)

As for the twist -- I actually don't think it's a bad idea, so much as it's handled badly. I would have liked to see more how they made their life in the village, and less people running around in ugly costumes.