So, Fantastic Four? Really not so good. It had its moments, but took sooooo looooong getting to them. Batman can take a while going through the how-he-got-there part. These guys? Went to space. And came back. There was no need for that to take an hour.

I wholeheartedly agree. I mean, yes, it could have sucked more than it did (it's no Catwoman), but dear LORD I don't think it could have been any more boring.

One of the people I saw it with liked it, but she (a) likes that sort of thing and (b) had never heard of the F4 before, so the 90 MINUTES OF EXPOSITION were less pointless than they were to the rest of us. Seriously, if you know even the broad strokes of these people's origin stories, there is no point in seeing this movie. (Unless maybe if you know and love them so well that just spending time with them is all you want. But if you want to see them do anything, this is not your film.)

Oh, Gris, I've been counting down to the gay cowboy movie for a year.

And didn't Anne Hathaway have some shocking movie coming out where she was going to be doing full-frontal and girl-on-girl? I know I'd heard something about that.

Whoa!

I met a girl on a cruise who looked a lot like Anne Hathaway. She was really pretty.

The Globe too found FF boring. And, you know, whenever you have a movie with "fantastic" in the title, the risk you run of bad pun reviews is high.

I just watched The Deep End [... ]I was expecting a bit more punch, but instead the plot kind of...fizzled out.

You mean the part with the fistfight in the boatshed? Or that sudden moment where Super Mom cracks and finally has to ask her son for help? Can you describe what felt fizzly to you?

Mostly the part where Alec dies and the movie just ends. It felt too...pat. There was all this momentum building up that didn't pay off in the way I was expecting.

I realize it's a movie, thus, sort of promising a payoff. But I found the ending, after the buildup, to be much like life. And though it bothered me, it did so in the way life events do so. I didn't "like" it, but I found it true.

That's a good way of putting it, Beverly.

Plus, she said, turning on a dime, Hot Doctor Luka! And Tilda? So icy she smoulders.

I think the idea is that the action is subservient to the emotional turning point. The fistfight isn't terribly showy; what matters in which side Alek comes in on. The "chase" in the car isn't important; what matters is who is driving.

(Also, I think the filmmakers couldn't afford a car crash scene.)

In some ways, I think it would be just as interesting if Alek disappeared and we never heard from him again; but I think the death scene is a nod to the film noir elements with which the whole film is in dialogue. Have to have closure, even if closure is actually not closing anything at all (emotionally speaking), only making things messier and more open.

I found that film deeply indifference -nducing after the first half hour. The symbolism (water, dripping, in every single shot) felt troweled on and none of the characters read as human beings to me. It was beautiful to look at, though.