2005
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10-1 | Proof with Kathy | Good movie. Similar plot to "A Beautiful Mind". |
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8-12 | The Great Raid | Good movie! Good acting and realistic re-creation of actual history. FDR was an awful commander in chief (as well a being a bozo with his socialist policies) - he was responsible for the situation in the first place. |
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8-5 | Hustle and Flow | Excellent movie! Good acting and great plot. Shows the difficulties in breaking into the music biz. |
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7-29 | Stealth | Great special effects, and interesting plot -- shows how problematic 'learning-machines' can be. Altho, certain characters were pretty cliche. |
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7-22 | War of the Worlds | Nice remake. Great special effects, and good perspective: from the point of view of the typical uprepared and technology-dependent American. |
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7-15 | Fantastic Four | Excellent movie. Good flow of action. Interesting adaptation to original comic book. |
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7-1 | Batman Begins with mom | Excellent movie. Good flow of action. First non-comedy batman, more true to original. Inventive. |
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6-24 | Mr. and Mrs. Smith | Pretty good comedy, similar to True Lies |
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6-3 | Star Wars Episode 3, Revenge of the Sith | Well done. Blends pretty good with original. |
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5-20 | Kingdom of Heaven | Pretty good rendition a transitional period of the Crusades. Good acting, cinematography, effects. Probably aimed in this period at current president, as the evil French Templar, who became king of Jerusalem in the movie, rushed to battle against the muslims without much thinking. The heroes were non-religious, but tolerant. Jerusalem at the start of the movie was a melting pot, and analogous to America. |
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5-6 | The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy | Pretty good rendition of Douglas Adams book. Silly British humor. Good acting and effects. Vogons were good. |
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4-29 | The Interpreter | Not bad, but a little slow. Much closer to being possible and believable than any other movie i've seen in a long time -- and therefore, not as entertaining. Has to do with violence in many African countries. Nicole Kidman was good. Sean Penn did a good job, as well. |
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4-8 | Upside of Anger | Not bad, but a definite chick flick. Characters and relationships are somewhat shallow. Some relevant interesting subplots. |
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3-25 | Sideways | Good movie. Recognize a lot of the scenery, as it all takes place near the freeway between S.D. and Solvang. Realistic. Don't care for their likes/dislikes in wine, however. |
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3-4 | Million Dollar Baby | Another great movie! Won best picture at the Oscars. Sad, tho. Basically a feel-good Rocky kind of movie of a person achieving on her steam and direction, turning into tragedy, and climaxing in euthanasia. Side stories, such as controlling bleeding to keep a boxing match going, and such. |
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2-25 | The Aviator | Great movie! Had to leave early for tennis, but first 2 hours were well done. Good special effects, good history lesson. Good acting. |
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2004
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12-17 | Closer | Good movie, but shallow (albeit quirky) relationships. Good acting. Julia Roberts and the same guy who played Sky Captain. |
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11-29 | The Incredibles | Good movie. Good music, animation, storyline. Demonstrates comic book cliches well. |
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10-15 | Team America: World Police | Cute movie. Liked the big sound with the amateurish special effects. Similar to Southpark plotline. |
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10-8 | Shaun of the Dead | Amusing little movie, but could of been done better. |
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9-24 | Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow | Excellent movie! Has the slickness of modern techniques with the feel of adventure movies of the 30s and 40s. |
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9-17 | Alien Vs. Predator | Nice special effects. Liked the rasta-predators. Simple plot, but well done. |
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9-10 | Hero | Artsy movie. Subtitles went too fast in a few places, tho. Good acting, cinematography. |
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6-25 | The Terminal | Great movie. Good acting from Tom Hanks, Catherine Zeta Jones, and bit actors. Demonstrated some of the idiocies of American beaurocracy, and was an amusing tale of survival in an unusual situation. |
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5-21 | Eternal Sunshine of the Empty Mind | Great movie. Interesting special effects, good acting, unusual screenplay and concepts. Not a light movie, so could give you a headache -- as a mind is being wiped during most of the movie. |
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5-14 | Kill Bill Vol. 2 | Classic movie. Not as good as K.B. Vol. 1, as most of the cool characters were killed off in that one, but Q.T. continued with a smorgasbord of genres, doing some neat b/w, grainy film, some spaghetti western stuff, exagerated close-ups in places, etc. First rate performances, good music. Cleared up mysteries of Vol. 1. |
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4-23 | Connie & Carla | Contrived musical movie. Somewhat entertaining, but a more believable and smoother plotline would have been better. Debbie Reynolds is still alive! |
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4-2 | Ladykillers with Roxie | Great movie. An adult comedy, with some original film-making. Like the 'helmet-cam'. Tom Hanks did an awesome southern gentleman performance, and the other characters were great, too. A believable movie, except for the irony, which makes it so funny. Rox didn't like it only because of one character's "hippity-hop" language. |
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3-12 | Hidalgo with Roxie | Good movie, except for the gratuitous violence and unbelievability. Across between The Black Stallion and and Indian Jones film. Omar Sharif played the shiek and Malcolm McDowell played a small role. Well crafted, good acting, and keeps your interest. |
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2-27 | Touching the Void with Roxie | Great movie! Good scenery, unbelievable, but apparently factual plot, great ice climbing photography, unique screenplay. |
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1-30 | In America with Roxie | Well acted and realistic movie. The young girls were especially good. Movie slowed down on last half, and this is a sappy movie. Roxie didn't especially like it. |
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1-23 | Calendar Girls with Roxie | Good movie. A bit slow, though, but good scenery, acting. |
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1-2 | Lord of the Rings, Return of the King | Good movie. A bit slow in spots, but a fast paced action movie in many parts. Good acting, excellent special effects, and music. |
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2003
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Date | Movie | Description | Rating
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12-28 | Big Fish with Roxie | Good movie. Somewhat of a comedy, but with a message about how important we feel our lives have been. Good acting, special effects, and music. A little slow in parts. |
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12-12 | Master and Commander | Good movie. Authentic early 19th century naval life is represented well (a hard life!). Good and fairly realistic story, but a little slow in parts. Nice scenery in the Galapagos. |
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12-5 | The Last Samurai | Good action movie. Good music. Computer-generated cast of thousands, much like Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers. Far-fetched, but a good story on how Japan and American relations started pulling apart in the last decades of the 19th century. |
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11-21 | Mystic River | Great movie. Lots of high powered acting, good plot, well put together. |
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11-14 | Radio | Good production - good acting. I would have preferred a more complex plot, but considering it's based on a true story, it was well done. |
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10-31 | the Rundown | Okay action/slapstick comedy movie. Christopher Walken did his usual offbeat bad guy character. Play on the Rock's fake wrestling career. |
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10-23 | Kill Bill Vol. I | Great movie! Good music, interesting Tarentino-editing, great action. Interesting mix of media - color, B/W, cartoons. Great acting. Mom said she didn't like it -- probably from the realistic blood and gore scenes -- which were pretty grizzly. |
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10-10 | School of Rock | Outstanding movie! Jack Black was great, kids were pretty talented. Good music. Actually have to stay to end of credits on this one. |
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10-3 | Secondhand Lions | Excellent movie. A drama/comedy. Very well done. |
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9-26 | Matchstick Men | Excellent movie. Similarities with Blow. Nick Cage played a neurotic like Monk, only on the other side of the law. Plot has some good switchbacks. Big sting was a bit far-fetched, tho. |
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9-19 | S.W.A.T. | Finely crafted action movie. Kept up pace to very end. Plot is just a bit unlikely. |
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9-12 | American Splendor | Oddball movie! A biography of a real person who wrote the American Splendor comic from the 70s to the 90s. The first comic to reflect real life, the trend in movies these days, so you could say the guy, Harvey Pekar, was a pioneer. |
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8-29 | Open Range | Great movie! Very realistic. Gunshots were actually as loud as in real life (not the watered down version in other movie!). Good acting. Too many people dawdled as targets in the open to be believed, however. And things were painted in black and white (bad guys were overly bad!). Cute little sub-stories. |
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8-22 | Pirates of the Caribbean: the Black Pearl | Not bad. A bit too long, tho |
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8-15 | The Swimming Pool | Interesting oddball movie. Just a little slow for me. |
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8-1 | Seabiscuit | Great movie! Good writing, cinematography, acting, music |
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7-25 | League of Extraordinary Gentlemen | Some good effects, something different in mixing up characters from other stories, but pretty lame theme, which is loosely England being supplanted by U.S. at start of 20th century, but with future technology and problems being used as a backdrop. I liked Mr. Hyde and Mima effects. Cute having Captain Nemo being Indian. |
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7-8 | Terminator 3 | Good movie. Lots of action, good plot, acting, cinematography, music, etc. |
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6-27 | 28 Days Later | Pretty scary. Nice effects and editting. |
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6-24 | The Hulk | Excellent. Well put together movie. Good acting, good effects. Very slick. |
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6-20 | Hollywood Homicide | Pretty good movie, interesting locations, characters. Plot was a bit stretched, tho. Lots of action. |
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6-10 | The Italian Job | Great movie, lots of action, interesting plot, well acted, Pink Floyd background music! |
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5-23 | Matrix Reloaded | Good special effects, great movie except for some lame music. |
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5-9 | X2 | Great movie, great special effects, lots of action, interesting characters, well acted. |
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4-4 | Lewis and Clark (IMAX) with Julie, Logan, Thor | Great movie. Good music, well editted. |
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3-7 | Chicago | Great movie. Little slow in places, so can't give it my top rating. |
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2-14 | Daredevil | Great movie. Looks like movies are not only achieving comic-book quality, but now exceeding them.Great special effects! |
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2-7 | Gangs of New York | Great movie. Did a good job of capturing the history of the time (civil war). |
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1-31 | Lord of the Rings the 2 Towers | Breakthrough special effects. Great New Zealand scenery. Well done. |
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1-3 | Catch Me if You Can | Interesting plot, good acting, great movie |
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2002
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12-13 | Star Trek: Nemesis with Maryhelen | Fair Star Trek movie. Darker sets made things more sinister. Next one will be The Search for Data, perhaps. |
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12-06 | Die Another Day | James Bond movies are improving. Good that he finally got caught and suffered 14 months as a POW for a change. |
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11-01 | Punchdrunk Love | Oddball movie that works. |
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9-27 | Four Feathers met mom there | Epic adventure. Well done. |
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8-30 | Goldmember | Amusing |
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8-23 | Blue Crush | Realistic surfing scenes |
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8-21 | My Big Fat Greek Wedding went with Linkroums | Excellent movie showing how difficult it is to break into closed cultures. |
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8-16 | XXX | Nice movie. Some stunts are ridiculous, but good 007 imitation. |
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8-09 | Signs | Not bad cinematography, just a silly plot (extraterrestrials who can't get past a locked door, and such). |
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8-02 | Minority Report | Interesting idea of what future may be like. Good movie. |
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7-30 | Road to Perdition with Dick Linkroum | Great movie. |
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7-26 | Reign of Fire | Nice special effects. |
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7-19 | Sum of All Fears | Not bad. |
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7-12 | Insomnia | Good suspense, nice scenery, and Robin Williams plays a bad guy |
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7-05 | Space Shuttle IMAX went with Dyer, Janis, Jeannie | Some cool images |
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6-21 | The Bourne Identity | Great spy movie |
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6-16 | Bears went with went with mom, Thor | Not bad. |
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6-10 | Spiderman went with mom, Thor | Reasonable conversion from comics to big screen |
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5-29 | Attack of the Clones | Great movie. |
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2-15 | A Beautiful Mind | Great movie. |
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2-08 | Royal Tennenbaums | Interesting movie. Something different. |
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2001
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Date | Movie | Description | Rating
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8-?? | Made | Unusual semi-gangster movie |
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8-?? | Enlightenment Guaranteed | German. Camcorder quality. Wild circumstances. Not bad. |
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7-19 | Jurassic Park III went with Thor | Nice action movie |
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6-26 | The Road Home | Chinese movie spanning a couple generations. Pretty good. |
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6-15 | Memento | Bizarre concept for a movie, interesting, but hard to follow |
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6-12 | Shrek | Nice special effects, pretty good. |
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6-08 | Himalaya | Tibetan film dealing with intergenerational conflict. Nice scenery. |
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6-01 | With a Friend Like Harry | French. Interesting and bizarre murder movie with a twist. |
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5-?? | The Luzhin Defence | John Tuturo played an absent minded chess player. Unusual ending. |
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5-01 | Blow | Great movie, shows how unimportant money is. |
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?? | Greenfingers | Great little movie |
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?? | Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon | Chinese. Amazing effects. |
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1999
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Date | Movie | Description | Rating
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6-18 | Star Wars Episode 1 went with Dyer | Nice special effects. |
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1998
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Date | Movie | Description | Rating
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6-06 | Bullworth went with Karyn | Not bad. |
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3-09 | Alaska in IMAX went with Karyn | Had a few good scenes. |
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