P-C, you should see The Third Man. One of the more delightfully cynical movies of its day.

I definitely want to, though I always get it confused with The Thin Man.

I don't remember much of the Theremin one. But there were Theremins in it.

There was a hilarious bit with Brian Wilson semi melting down.

I definitely want to, though I always get it confused with The Thin Man.

Also a worthy movie, but I prefer the THIRD MAN. The Thin Man has an excellent detective team though. And a great dog.

I saw one of the Thin Man movies (forget which one). I liked it a lot, except for the racist sight gag involving the dog.

Captain Critic (all our insults combined!) doesn't seem to hate The Polar Express

I love the New York Times on Polar Express:

Tots surely won't recognize that Santa's big entrance in front of the throngs of frenzied elves and awe-struck children directly evokes, however unconsciously, one of Hitler's Nuremberg rally entrances in Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will." But their parents may marvel that when Santa's big red sack of toys is hoisted from factory floor to sleigh it resembles nothing so much as an airborne scrotum.

They showed a clip from the movie during Gilmore Girls last night. It was awful. Not only did all the characters look totally freaky, but they must have hired the cheapest composer in Hollywood. The song sucked, and Tom Hanks cannot sing

It was HIDEOUS. I kept waiting for it to stop and it ... kept .... going ... a .... little .... longer.

Really, if you WANT to write a Busby Berkley number about hot chocolate, okay, I can feel that. But a)the song needed more than five freaking words if they were going to drag it out that long, becausre the lyrics were insanely annoying; and b)it looked like they took the cups back before the children could have POSSIBLY had time to drink it, which is just mean after all the song and dance.

Plus, the animation process creeps me out on a very visceral level. It's one of those movies that makes me glad I don't have kids and cannot be dragged to it.

Yeah, the Polar Express thing just bugs me -- it looks so wrong somehow.

They showed a clip from the movie during Gilmore Girls last night. It was awful. Not only did all the characters look totally freaky, but they must have hired the cheapest composer in Hollywood. The song sucked, and Tom Hanks cannot sing

This is why I love my Tivo. So far, my favorite Polar Express review is from New York Magazine, purely for this opening line:

Strap yourself in and try not to vomit, because this is more of a theme-park event than a movie

DH and I saw Beyond the Sea last night, and it was every bit the excessive ego trip for Kevin Spacey that we expected. I ended up liking it in spite of myself, just because it was so ridiculously overblown that my choices were either (a) go with it or (b) continue to roll my eyes until they fell out of my head. There's about an hour in the middle that has almost nothing to redeem it (why do people keep casting Kate Bosworth in things when she really can't act and isn't even all that pretty?), but the music is fantastic throughout, and the beginning and the end hinge on this utterly absurd framing device that you can either hate outright, or shake your head and just accept that, yes, it sucks, but it sucks in an oddly endearing way.

Really, the only good thing about this film is the soundtrack. I enjoyed most of it in spite of itself, but I wouldn't blame anyone who wanted to smack me for recommending it.