The plot itself, the reason the hit men are in Bruges, is much more substantial than the movie trailer would have you believe. Of course, if it told you that, then it would give away too much. Let's just say it makes you care about the main characters and along with the laughs, makes you not just cry, a little, but gasp. So kudos to writer/director Martin McDonaghy. Is it just me or are all the good movies, writers, directors, and actors these days from foreign countries? 

I give In Bruges a High Five, but if you're like the older couple who left early on because of the language, you might want to stay away, although it fit well with the characters and story and wasn't just there to shock the audience or get an R rating.

However, in our current time of war, on the 5th anniversary of George Bush taking us into Iraq, Miss Pettigrew does have a message: war wrecks people's live. The setting of 1939 England just prior to that country's involvement in World War II reminds us just how precious life and love are, that every moment counts and we shouldn't waste time playing games or going after things that won't fulfill us. The fact that both Frances McDormand's character, a down and out governess suddenly turned social secretary, and Amy Adams' character, both learn this in a period of 24 hours does not mean it isn't true. Many lessons in life happen overnight, like success - they just have a lot of suffering and years of experience behind them.

Oh, how I wish more people would learn their lessons. Oh, how I wish more movies were this well-written, well-acted, and well... thought-provoking without being depressing.

The acting and character development in the film is superb. Ellen Page’s portrayal of the sarcastic and witty Juno is somehow endearing, and you root for her character throughout the film. Her interaction with the father of the baby (played by Michael Cera which some of you will remember from the brilliant show, Arrested Development) is heartbreaking, funny, and touching. The potential adoptive father in the film is played by Jason Bateman who appreciates Juno’s sense of humor and they connect in an unexpected way. While Jennifer Garner plays the potential adoptive mother, and is anxious about the arrival of the baby and obsessed with making everything perfect. Meanwhile Juno is simply trying to make the best of an awkward situation, and keep her head high while doing so. Written by Diablo Cody and directed by Jason Reitman, Juno is not to be missed! 

I will not give away the ending…but it took me by surprise. For more analysis and commentary (which WILL give away the ending), check out my new Blog: www.filmfascination.wordpress.com

He must have been fun to be around, except the man seems like a gentle sort when he speaks in public, such as at the SAG Awards. The oil-man Daniel is the opposite, yet I was mesmerized by him, wanting to figure out what makes men like him tick and then blow up like one of their oil wells. I couldn't help but think of our modern day oil men who seem to go to any length to find or steal oil and then get it to the consumer, of which I am one. I almost felt guilty for driving my car to the theater, realizing that so much of the world's problems right now are due to the oil economy, which is only a little more than a century old - I don't need to name them...   

Neither do I need to name the oil men who are in charge of our country right now and have us entangled in what they would like us to believe is a never-ending war on terror. Strange how this movie also has a religious theme in it, which I think points to a lot that is going on right now. Oil and greed is a religion in itself, and religion all too often has a lot to do with greed and power. I recommend this movie simply because it is so well done, but be prepared to not feel good at the end. The good guy, if there is a good guy, does not win the Day.

This is about the actor, Viggo Mortensen, who we were attracted to in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Since then, he's taken on gutsier roles, the gutsiest being a member of the Russian mob in Eastern Promises, for which he's been nominated for an Oscar. My husband told me we'd get to see Viggo naked, so naturally I thought there would be a love scene between him and co-star Naomi Watts. But this movie has chosen violence over sex to engage its audience.

And it works. It's gritty, to say the least. As I said to my husband as we were throwing out our microwave popcorn bags, "I'm glad I didn't see that movie before we took the overnight train through F.Y.R.O.M. last year." I wouldn't have been so agreeable to that part of our tour of Eastern Europe. We actually met a man who had been gassed and robbed on the same train a few years before. So we went prepared with a steel rope lock, and we made sure the window was cracked.

Shortly after leaving the station in northern Greece, the conductor collected our passports and Eurail passes. About midnight, when we got to the border, we had to disembark and stand outside the police station to get them back. Yes, it was misty out like you'd expect in any good movie about the former Iron Curtain countries. One poor couple from Australia got sent back to Thessaloniki because F.Y.R.O.M. (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) required visas from Commonwealth countries.

An older gentleman on our car had suffered the same consequence a few days earlier. Even though he had been born in Belgrade, Serbia (when it was Belgrade, Yugoslavia), as a current citizen of Canada, he had been turned back and missed almost two days of precious time with his family. It wasn't like he hadn't done his homework; there had just been a rift between Macedonia and the Commonwealth in the last few weeks, thus the required visa. Things are still changing rapidly in that part of the world...

Oh, about the movie, "Eastern Promises."  Rent it or go see it. It will scare you. It will make you think. It will make you realize how good you have it, even though you might be bored silly with your suburban life and shopping malls. I hate to come out in public like this and say something, but I think it is important that we strive to protect our freedoms and help others in the world gain theirs. I just disagree with the way we've been going about it this century. Hmmm... I think I will go to my Feb. 5th precinct caucus.

In this case, the children, perfectly played by Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman, are estranged from their father when they get the call that someone needs to take care of him. Even though he abused them as children after their mother abandoned them, they rise to the occasion and do the best that they can.

It is clear that they're not really showing up for their father, since he has dementia , but for each other and themselves. Forgiveness, after all, is the gift we give ourselves. I know I was touched, even though I'm not sure I could have done the same. Bravo to Tamara Jenkins for both writing and directing The Savages.

It reminded me of The English Patient, another award-winning movie about the horrors of war and what it does to the individual and relationships. Just like Elaine on Seinfeld, I found it devastatingly slow and boring. It just took too long for anything to happen. It was too much like real life that way. That's why we go to movies, isn't it? To escape our own boring lives.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not like my husband who has to have lots of action in a movie to like it, such as a car chase or guns blasting away. I just need more happening on the screen than in my own life. Maybe my life is more exciting than the average one. After all, I've always lived in Montana or Colorado and I've had to opportunity to travel a lot. I've met a lot of interesting characters and have my own stories that would make good movies...

So maybe I need to do something about that rather than complain about boring movies. Hmmmm.....  

I don’t want to give too much away, but the film is a sweeping drama and artfully done. It has a particularly skillful tracking shot of the beach at Dunkirk. It is both wonderful to watch (from the standpoint of filmmaking) and devastating from the point of the audience; the director shows the true chaos and tragedy of war, as exemplified by Dunkirk. The ending is surprising, but, I felt, fitting for the film; the story is not truly that of Cecilia’s and Robbie’s, but that of Briony - who must live with the knowledge of what she has done.   

Frank Lucas is surprisingly also a likable character. The audience cannot help but be entertained by Washington’s charismatic performance as the drug lord whose innovative ideas helped create a heroine epidemic in the city of New York. While the film never shies away from showing the nature of Lucas’ business (with scenes complete with piles of heroine and naked women who prepare it for sale-who are presumably naked so they can't steal any dope), his drive to succeed and remain independent from the mafia hold a certain appeal. He is somehow living the “American Dream,” coming from nothing and becoming successful out of his own ideas, so it is almost to be admired despite the way he achieved his enormous success. All of this, however, in such a film, must come to an end with Roberts and Lucas eventually meeting towards the end of the story. The anticipation of this meeting builds throughout the film, though the story takes an unlikely turn. I won’t give away the ending, but it’s a film worth watching. “American Gangster” was directed by Ridley Scott and written by Steven Zaillain.   

I didn't see that when I saw the movie last Friday night. Instead, my husband and I agreed that Washington's character was likable as was the cop played by Russell Crowe. In other words, we cared about what happened to these two men, who don't even meet until close to the end of the movie. Without giving away the outcome, there are others in the movie that are not likable and do get what is coming to them. Indeed, they suffered the consequences.

I enjoyed the movie, even though it is close to three hours long, and recommend it to anyone who likes good crime drama. But because a scene towards the end was a bit too much like The Godfather, I can't give it a High Five. Four out of Five was still worth the five dollars I plunked down.

He makes sure the audience knows how much he cares for the Martian Child he takes into his home, as well as giving them hope that not every child gets “lost” in the foster system, that some actually find love and security.

I don’t want to tell you any more about this movie, except it also stars Joan Cusack, John’s sister, playing his over-protective sister.  Go see it while it’s still in theaters.  I give it a High Five.

The acting, directing, and writing superbly draw you into Lars' life and makes you care from the beginning to the very end. You laugh out loud, several times, and then find yourself crying at a funeral that no one should cry at. With so many movies now relying on special effects and action, it is such a relief to see a movie that doesn't even need one sex scene to entertain you and, at the same time, give you renewed hope in your fellow man and community.

So fork out your dollars to go see this movie while it is still in theaters. There is just something about seeing perfect acting on the big screen that doesn't translate on DVD, although this movie is one I'll probably buy. And I hope by then that the WGA has won its cause for writers to get their nickel for every time their work is purchased, broadcast, and viewed. In this case, the excellent script makes the movie, although the acting and directing have done their part.

By the way, I'm not a film student like Liz, but I'd put this in the film category - it is that good. I give it a High Five.