Recent movies

I've actually seen a number of movies over the past couple of weeks, in the theater and on video:

Tangled was adorable.  Lively, funny, and sweet, with a wonderful active heroine in Rapuzel.

Megamind was also really fun.  The kids were enthusiastic, but I hadn't wanted to see this odd animated feature that has been marketed aggressively for many months.  But I laughed out loud several times, and enjoyed the cracked fairy tale atmosphere of the bad guy who becomes the good guy by the end (similar in Despicable Me, though only in theme, not in any story details).

The Losers (2010) was surprisingly entertaining, considering it completely bombed at the box office (this is the witty offbeat action movie that The A Team should have been).  A very sexy sex scene and a couple of  f-bombs were unexpected, considering the PG-13 rating (though ultimately not unwelcome).  The script, by Peter Berg, is full of the sly humor that is his trademark.  They certainly left themselves room for a sequel (the movie is based on a comic book), but they aren't likely to do it, unfortunately, considering the film's lack of financial success.  But I'd love to see the delicious Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Zoe Saldana together again.

Framed (1990).  An older movie made by HBO starring Jeff Goldblum and Kristin Scott Thomas (I love them both!!!) as con artists.  She left him holding the bag in Paris, and after a stint in prison, she comes back to involve him in a new con.  Funny and charmingly offbeat, though not as romantic as I would have liked.

Purple Violets (2007) written by, directed by and starring Ed Burns, with Selma Blair, Patrick Wilson and Debra Messing (and a couple of brief scenes with Elizabeth Reaser and Donal Logue).  The parts were better than the whole - some fun scenes and moments and a clever storyline, but the characters were stiff and cliched, and mostly the prodigious talents of the great cast were wasted.

Caprica (2009) was another disappointment.  I watched a 2 hour video which was the first two episodes of the series, packaged as a movie.  I really wanted to like it, but I thought it was mostly boring and uninvolving, despite a good cast and some intriguing plot points about religion.  It's certainly nothing like Battlestar Gallactica, which completely sucks you in from the very first minute.  And it certainly wasn't as interesting as it should have been, considering it had such great material to work from not to mention a built-in audience who were dying to know what happened before that big explosion that started the series off with such a literal bang.  I like both Eric Stolz and Esai Morales, and I think they are both servicable here.  Polly Walker was a surprise, as the head of a polytheistic religious order and [SPOILER ALERT] closet monotheist, and hers is probably the most interesting character introduced, and would be the only reason I would continue to watch the series.  I thought the teen characters were poorly written and poorly acted, and were the most compelling reason not to tune it further.

Sick Around the World (2008) is actually a Frontline episode from PBS, a terrific and fascinating examination of the healthcare coverage in 5 countries - UK, Switzerland, Germany, Taiwan, and Japan.  Everyone should watch this!