MANHUNTER  vs. RED DRAGON. I was never a big cheerleader for Red Dragon, but I think its ending is waaay better (like the book if I recall), and I think Raph's relationship with the blind girl was much improved. Norton was unremarkable. It's awesome they got the same cinematographer for both flicks. Wow, has production design changed over the years. Mann was definitely still rockin the Miami Vice pastels and wide white spaces. I like Manhunter a lot in spite of its flaws (the fuck is up with that lousy shootout at the end?). Would be interesting to see where where Brian Cox would've taken Lecter in the sequels.
MARCH OF THE PENGUINS. Just a rare doc – and a foreign one – that was embraced by the mainstream for some reason (marketing). It's well-worth watching, but to me it's only a notch above anything you'd see on Discovery Channel any given day. I thought Winged Migration was far superior and innovative and worthy of the attention.
THE MATADOR. Entertaining and full of quirk. A nice little door-opener for Pierce Brosnan, hopefully. Greg Kinnear excels at playing himself as always.
MAXED OUT.  Someone told me this doc was made by the Super-Size Me guy. No, that's Spurlcok, not Scurlock. The message is important, but it's not much of a film. Here's a novel concept in debt management: I call it "don't buy shit you can't afford."
MIAMI VICE. The shootout scene near the end was fantastic, especially the sound; it was like each gun had its own character and tone. Some well-done tense moments throughout the film. The whole thing has a very realistic look (thank you, video). That said, sometimes the look really bothers me, just like it did in Collateral. Mainly the nighttime deep-focus stuff with all the crappy electronic grain. Probably because most of us go to great effort to avoid that look on our own shoots, yet he celebrates it. And ya know, just cuz you're shooting on video doesn't mean you don't have to light the set. Many scenes could've used more work in that department. I was a little bummed cuz I wanted to hear an update to the Jan Hammer theme. . . had to settle for a cover of the Phil Collins tune that wasn't too bad.
MICHAEL CLAYTON.  The characters can be a bit hard to follow, but the realism and tension are fantastic, and Tom Wilkinson is especially great as a lawyer with privileged information who appears to lose his marbles at the worst possible time. Tilda Swinton's arrogance is perfectly played as well. There's also some guy named Clooney in it; watch for his career to emerge. Fortunately this doesn’t venture too far into Brockovich-ian morality territory.
MISHIMA: A LIFE IN FOUR CHAPTERS. Gorgeous film that I'd never heard of prior to its recent Criterion DVD release, despite it having been made in 1985 by Paul Schrader. Four of Mishima's books are brought to life in color vignettes intercut with biographical scenes in black-and-white. As the fiction sometimes seems to overlap reality, it makes for an excellent study on how an artist's life and upbringing influences his work.
THE MIST. You must see this in B&W as Darabont intended, which is on the bonus disc. It really does help transport you into a more suggestible state as this type of film demands. Its most interesting aspect is not what evil lurks within the mist, rather, how its fear splinters a confined micrcosm of society into factions between the survivalists and the evangelical repentants, and the monstrous power of groupthink. The ending polarized audiences, but I side with its perfection.
MISTER FOE. Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot) plays a teen struggling with his mother's suicide. He holes up in a treehouse and on Edinburgh rooftops where he can peep on others, journal obsessively, and costume his body in tribal adornments. Not a very sympathetic character, until he begins tracking a familial-looking stranger and attempts a "normal" connection. The acting's fantastic all around, with some great characters and several truly squirmy moments in this indie. I wish Claire Forlani was in more flicks on this side of the pond.
MONSTER HOUSE. Kids movie, stupid plot, but damn that was some wicked animation. The camera moves were plotted just like a real movie, and that sold it for me. I saw the setup they used, with the geared tripod head and virtual lenses and handheld simulations with motion capture and all that. And somebody finally had the balls to get the focus right. Animated movies are always too sharp throughout the frame for me, I guess cuz they figure they worked really hard on all that background detail and they want you to see it, instead of limiting the depth like real lenses would (and they did here). Plus I think I just really dug seeing humans featured instead of animals for a change.
MURDER PARTY. Just good, fun horror-comedy. Art School Confidential meets Reservoir Dogs. Basically, an art collective invites a random stranger to their Halloween shindig to kill him and impress a snobbish potential benefactor. Reminded me of early Peter Jackson. Not so much a visual feast, but the humor is quick and there are some gems in the details for the attentive (like the electric-chainsaw-wielding maniac who has to carry the extension cord with him everywhere, or the Breakfast Club homages, or the villain's cheat sheet). Though I can't help thinking it might have made a better short film.
MY DATE WITH DREW. At the insistence of a friendgirl. It was charming, actually. The main character was a schlub whom I thought couldn't carry for 90 minutes, but he wins you over.
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