I am taking a lunch break and watching a history of the Knights Templar and thought it would be a good time to post some of the films I have seen in the past week or so…

Miller’s Crossing by the Coen brothers was a very good film. Gabriel Byrne(Usual Suspects, Stigmata), Albert Finney(Annie, Big Fish), Marcia Gay Harden(Mystic River, Pollock), John Turturro(Oh Brother Where Art Thou, The Big Lebowski) and others added great acting to a clever plot. It reminded me a lot of a film that I really liked called Last Man Standing with Bruce Willis. Turns out that LMS came out six years after MC and probably borrowed from the Coens instead of the other way around. Oh well, I liked them both. Interestingly, William Sanderson played the weasley little bartender in Last Man and sorta started a franchise playing that character. He played almost the identical character in last night’s premiere of Deadwood.

RATING 8 out of 10

I finally got around to seeing About Schmidt with Jack Nicholson. At first, I thought it was going to be a really good film. I can relate the the feeling of “is that all there is,” and was interested in seeing what I thought would be a film about a retired widower travelling around the country in his RV having odd experiences along the way. It turned out to be some strange little trip inside the head of a sad person. The whole story arced on him sending money to a child outreach program oversees and writing letters to his sponsored child. It was a cheap and campy attempt at narrative through letter writing and when it ended with a reply letter from Ndugu validating his sad life, I was left wondering why the hell I invested an hour and a half into watching it. It missed the mark and by not delivering some reward to the audience for having to sit through the writer’s mindless dribble.

Jack has always had a tendency to take just about any role, but I thought with his maturity he would be a bit more selective as he transistioned from making a buck to making a statement. He did a good job of acting in the role, but it was a film that never should have been made.

RATING 6 out of 10