Movies

With voices of Kirsten Dunst, Phil Hartman, Matthew Lawrence and Debbie Reynolds. A young witch must learn to survive on her own in a new town. Created by acclaimed animator Hayao Miyazaki.

Kiki being thirteen years old is of the age when young witches leave home. It is customary for them to leave home for a year and find a city where there are no other witches to focus on their training. On a date unexpected by her parents she sets off to find a city by the ocean.

Kiki, off on her own, struggles with her self-confidence. This being a universal conflict for children around this age, and not just witches, I think it would be a good movie for younger children. The movie is rated G, so it was not exactly a movie for which I would be considered the target audience. That does not mean that I could not enjoy it. That does not mean more specifically that I did not enjoy it. By no means was this the best movie I have seen, but it was cute. What I took most out of it was the animation. Miyazaki continues to impress. I have liked other movies he has directed and plan to see as many as I can.

Miyazaki has wowed audiences with many films, including Spirited Away. You can learn more about this film and others from Hayao Miyazaki at MiyazakiMovies.com.

| Buy it from Amazon $22.49 | Discuss it in the Forum |

Great deal from Amazon to get Chappelle's Show Season 1 for only $13.50.

BUY IT NOW.

With Cameron Diaz, Edward Burns, Jennifer Aniston, John Mahoney, Mike McGlone and Maxine Bahns. Two New York brothers, one blue collar, one white collar, finally come to blows over their lives, their wives, and their mistresses.

I began my appreciation for Edward Burns with his work in Confidence, which has quickly become one of my favorite movies. In digging through his resume a bit I came across a few movies which he wrote and directed. Those titles include The Brothers McMullen, She's the One, No Looking Back, Sidewalks of New York, Ash Wednesday, Looking for Kitty and The Groomsmen. As an Ed Burns fan, you can see I have my hands full. But you have to start somewhere. I started with She's the One.

Three men, two brothers and their father, learn valuable lessons about themselves and each other thanks to a few women in their lives. The two brothers are now in their mid-20s, one is married and the other had one foot on the altar before finding his beloved sprawled on the floor of their apartment with another man. What can come between two brothers? A woman? The three men, the "Fighting Fitzpatricks", find out they do not have women figured out as they once had thought.

Once you get over how slimy Mike McGlone's character (as the younger brother) is, the movie is quite enjoyable. I think it can be described as a good natured comedy from which you may even be able to learn a thing or two. The movie was a little raw, but as this was Ed Burns' second movie, he probably did not have a huge budget. Understand also that this movie would probably have not been as good had much more money been put into it. As-is, the movie had a certain "real" edge to it that made the characters seem a little more sincere.

I did have a little trouble separating Burns as Mickey Fitzpatrick from Jake Vig (Confidence), but I got over that too.

Having an older brother, movies where there is a focus on some competition between brothers are ones to which I can relate. It is always interesting to see how those relationships compare to the one between my brother and I. I guess I just hope he doesn't seen any of Francis Fitzpatrick in me...

I liked She's the One. I think it's one you might want to check out.

Buy She's the One $9.98

| Forum |

With Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter and John Goodman. He's an ex-con who used to rob convenience stores. She was the cop who used to take his mug shots. Now they're married, and all they want is a child so he kidnaps one! Soon, everyone, from the police to the mysterious Lone Biker of the Apocalypse are on their trail.

This movie has played on Comedy Central for years and I had never caught it from the beginning so I never watched. Finally I have seen it start to finish and boy can I say it was a disappointment. This movie was bad..., nay this movie was awful.

For the first five minutes or so of the movie, it was pretty funny. Eventually Nic Cage stops robbing convenience stores, as a result he stops going back to jail. At about this point even the novelty wears off from looking at Cage's wild hair; that stops being funny, too.

Once Hi (Cage) falls for Ed (Hunter), the movie is no longer worth watching. Holly Hunter brings nothing to the film. John Goodman, who plays almost exactly the same character he did in O Brother, Where Art Thou? (less the Bible talk), offers little contribution.

All I could do was sit and wish for the ending of the movie to come sooner and I remember feeling let down when my wishes did not come true. The end of this movie was absolute torture. Yes, I am being very hard on this movie, but I disliked it that much. It started out so promisingly. What a shame.

Buy Raising Arizona $7.49

| Forum |

Intermission, starring Shirley Henderson, Kelly Macdonald, Colm Meaney, Cillian Murphy and Colin Farrell, is a raucous story of the interweaving lives and loves of small-town delinquents, shady cops, pretty good girls and very (very) bad boys. With Irish guts and grit, lives collide, preconceptions shatter and romance is tested to the extreme.

An ill-timed and poorly executed break-up sets off a chain of events affecting everyone in town. There's the hapless romantic and his sex-starved best friend, the hotshot detective and the crook he's after, a young girl on the rebound with an older married man (not to mention his deserted wife), an ambitious TV producer, abandoned fiancée, preteen trouble-maker -- all unaware of how their choices are profoundly intertwined.

Add a botched robbery, some brown sauce, a woman's moustache, flying rocks and dancing single seniors and you have Intermission.

Colin Farrell heads a "top-drawer cast" (New York Post) in this "fast-paced, hilarious" (BBCi) dark comedy involving a hilarious heist, a comical kidnapping and eleven intersecting story lines.

The power of recommendation is so strong. Sure you have the option of browsing lists of movies on the internet or even looking shelf to shelf at the movie rental location, but they cannot top someone saying, "Hey, you should check [insert movie title here] out."

I am telling you now as a friend told me, "Hey, you should check Intermission out."

You will have to pay attention to this movie, and for two reasons. One, the story is one that requires you follow or you may be lost. Two, the Irish accents are thick enough so that for my American ears it took some getting used to before I understood what they were saying.

Intermission is a funny movie that follows around different characters as they go about their lives. The story is set at a time where the breakup of man and woman has some indirect ripple effect.

I like Colin Farrell in movies when he is allowed to play roles that I figure are more natural for him; roles in which he is more obnoxious and often worse. The character he plays here certainly meets that criteria. (My favorite being his role in Tigerland.)

Buy interMission $13.46

| Forum |

A priest on the run finds refuge by joining up with a band of traveling actors. When the troupe comes across an innocent girl imprisoned for murder, they attempt to solve the crime by acting it out on stage.

A young priest is run out of his village and forced to find his own way. He meets up with a band of traveling actors and persuades them to let him join. In England in the 1300s, as the movie is set, actors would only play out stories from the Bible. When the troupe realizes their performances lack attendance they decide to try telling a story that is not in the Bible. There is a young woman in town who will be hanged for the murder of a boy. The story they will play is hers.

What they do not plan for is winding down a path of truth to uncover lies that may affect the lives of the entire town.

The main character is Paul Bettany (Wimbledon and A Knight's Tale). He does a fine job, but this places Willem DaFoe in a support role. There is nothing wrong with DaFoe playing a lesser role when there is a strong lead, but Bettany is not that. And overall I was very disappointed with Dafoe. I was constantly wondering when he was going to do something. I hate to say that he mailed in this performance.

The movie ended weakly. It is never good to be left with a feeling of "That's it?" as the credits roll. Feel free to skip this one.

I expected so much from this film. I got none of it.

Buy The Reckoning $13.49

| Forum |