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This is the first of the POTTER films where I read the book before I saw the film. Despite the book being better, the film is still a wonderful treat, keeping up the quality of the series. New director Alfonso Cuaron (Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN) replaces Chris Columbus at the helm, moving the franchise in a more mature direction.

The awe-shucks wonder of the magical world is over for teenage Harry (Daniel Radcliffe, TAILOR OF PANAMA). He’s become bitter about the murder of his parents and lashes out against his muggle (non-magic) family for insulting his parents’ name. This time around Voldemort has taken a rest from trying to kill Harry, but it seems that escaped convict Sirius Black (Gary Oldman, THE PROFESSIONAL) is taking up the reigns. Where Ron (Rupert Grint) played a bigger role than Hermione (Emma Watson) in the second film, it’s visa versa in the third. Despite a continuous war between Ron and Hermione over her cat attacking his rat, the film does develop the two teens’ ever growing attraction for each other.

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There are certain directors who could film a person reading a book and you’d be able to find something truly wonderful within it. David Mamet is one of those directors for me. He is hands down the modern master of con-game thrillers.

Scott (Val Kilmer, TOMBSTONE) is a tough-guy CIA agent who we meet as he’s training new recruits Curtis (Derek Luke, PIECES OF APRIL) and Jackie Black (Tia Texada, NURSE BETTY). Scott gets called onto a top level kidnapping case. It’s the president’s daughter, Laura Newton (Kristen Bell, POOTIE TANG). How could the Secret Service let this happen? That’s about as much information as I will reveal. The trailer does great disservice to the film’s surprises. So I’d recommend not watching it before seeing the film.
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From master documentary maker Errol Morris comes this intriguing look at the life of former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara. Now in his 80s, McNamara is still vibrant and quite reflective about his role in WWII and Vietnam. How about this for candor, McNamara admits that if the U.S. would have lost WWII he and others would have probably been brought up on war crime charges for the fire bombing and nuclear attack on Japan. This gives you an idea of the overall sentiment of the film, which gives the first hand account of the mechanics of war, which are often paradoxical and seemingly insane.

It’s an interesting irony that while McNamara worked for the Ford Motor Company he was instrumental in making cars safer even introducing seat belts, but participated in the death of hundreds of thousands of people in two wars. It’s quite fascinating to hear what McNamara says and doesn’t say throughout the film. Through the spry 85-year-old, we get a firsthand history lesson of the key military and political events of the past 60 years from WWII to Vietnam. The man who would play such a huge roll in later wars recalls memories from when he was two, watching a WWI victory parade. McNamara scarily relates just how close we were to nuclear war with Russia during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He also candidly talks about his mistakes during Vietnam and the day he realized the war was lost.

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Like the original SCREAM film, the characters know the rules of horror flicks — even the rules of horror sequels. Higher body count and more gore. This “rule” typically ruins other horror sequels and succeeds in doing the same with SCREAM 2.

The film opens with the premiere of “Stab,” which was based on a book about the events of the first film written by news reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox, TV’s FRIENDS). The lead Sidney (Neve Campbell, THE COMPANY), nerdy Randy (Jamie Kennedy, MALIBU’S MOST WANTED) and now crippled police officer Dewey (David Arquette, THE GREY ZONE) all return. Added to the cast is Laurie Metcalf (TV’s ROSEANNE) as a local reporter, Jerry O’Connell (JERRY MAGUIRE) as Sidney’s new boyfriend Derek, Timothy Olyphant (ROCK STAR) as Derek’s best friend, Sarah Michelle Gellar (TV’s BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER) as a sorority chick, Liev Schreiber (A WALK ON THE MOON) as the man Sidney originally fingered as her mother’s killer and Jada Pinkett Smith and Omar Epps as the token black couple.

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This is an intense emotional ride through the mob underworld from the perspective of a FBI spy. Based on the true-life story of FBI agent Joseph D. Pistone, who is still in the witness protection program, the film feels informed by the reality what a cop really goes through. But down deep the film isn’t about cops and criminals, but about loyalty. If you’re an undercover cop, who do you stay loyal to — the job that puts you in danger every moment and takes you away from your family, or the criminal who has become your friend?

Johnny Depp masterfully plays the title character, the FBI agent who infiltrates a mob organization through a low-level thug named Lefty (Al Pacino, HEAT). Pacino has played a lot of gangster-like characters, but this is his best since THE GODFATHER (I must admit I have not seen SCARFACE, yet). I love how the characters are developed and how Brasco takes on the personality of the gangsters. Lefty is the perfect in for Brasco, because he’s the kind of guy who wants people to believe he’s bigger than he is, so he says things that he shouldn’t.
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This is one of the best films of 2003 easily. Top three. Most films rarely have one complexly drawn character and this film has three. It’s a story of strangers. One shelters himself and one opens up to anyone and the third is stuck in between. There are many reasons why they are estranged from other people. It is the mystery of the story for us to discover those reasons.

Finbar McBride (Peter Dinklage, ELF) is a little person, who works in a model train store. Through a tragedy, he inherits an old train depot in New Jersey. Across from his new home is a hot dog stand where the extremely extroverted and persistent Joe Oramas (Bobby Cannavale, THE GURU) works. As we quickly see being a little person brings a lot of unwanted attention and Fin has learned to keep his distance from people. He then runs into (or more like the other way around) artist Olivia Harris (Patricia Clarkson, ALL THE REAL GIRLS). Before too long the three strike up a friendship, but past wounds put their relationship in jeopardy.
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The amazing thing about this film isn’t that its concept is anything groundbreakingly original, but that it succeeds in telling a familiar tale with such originality and genuine heart.

After losing their son Frankie in an accident, Johnny (Paddy Considine, 24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE) moves his family – wife Sarah (Samantha Morton, MINORITY REPORT) and daughters Christy (Sarah Bolger, TV’s A SECRET AFFAIR) and Ariel (Emma Bolger, INTERMISSION) – to New York City to try his hand at an acting career. The family struggles living in an apartment with junkies and overcoming the great sorrow of losing Frankie.
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This was a film from 2001 that escaped my viewing for too long. I came and went in the theaters and the only reviewer that I read at the time, Mr. Ebert, only gave it two stars. But then, three of its four leads were nominated for Oscars and Jim Broadbent (BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY) won best supporting actor. I must admit that before this movie I didn’t know who Iris Murdoch was. The movie wasn’t a highlight reel of her life’s accomplishments, but captured her ideas and nature and wrapped it into a larger poem on the cruelty of Alzheimer’s disease.

The film flashes back from the 1950s to the 1990s looking at Iris at the beginning of her career (Kate Winslet, HEAVENLY CREATURES) and then at the end of her life played by Dame Judi Dench (MRS. BROWN). However, you could argue that the film’s central character is Iris’ husband John Bayley played by Hugh Bonneville (MANSFIELD PARK) as a young man and Broadbent older.
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I have wanted to see this film for over a year and a half now. Ebert ranked it the second best film of 2002. It was released in U.S. theaters in January of 2003. Despite this fact (which usual hurts a film because Academy members forget) it was still nominated for four Oscars in 2003 — Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Editing and Best Adapted Screenplay. It was a smash hit in its native Brazil and imdb.com ranks it as its readers’ 31st most popular film of all time. Have I made you want to see it yet?

Here’s the story: Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues, GOLDEN GATE (PALACE II)) lives in the ghetto of Rio called the City of God – where corrupt cops fruitlessly try to control the street gangs. Rocket is the narrator of the film, which chronicles two decades of life in the slums. Rocket starts out by telling the story of his brother’s gang and how Lil’ Dice (Douglas Silva) grows up to become Lil’ Ze (Leandro Firmino), the most ruthless gangster in town. Lil’ Ze does this by murdering whomever stands in his way and accomplishes it by the age of 18. The only person who keeps Lil’ Ze under control is his best friend Benny (Phellipe Haagensen), who serves as a peacemaker, especially between Ze and rival gang leader Carrot (Matheus Nachtergaele).
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