I've only seen this once and own the DVD but it surprised me and I did enjoy it very much. Have you seen THE APARTMENT? Another great Jack Lemmon movie.

I love "The Apartment"! As good as Jack Lemmon was in it I love it because of Shirley MacLaine. IMO she was at her best then (in the late 50's/early 60's) and I had a major crush on her.

Consider her roles from that period:

"Some Came Running" - an AWESOME movie with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin befriending the floozy, MacLaine.

"The Apartment" -

"Irma LaDouce" - she plays a prostitute to Jack Lemmon's "pimp". Hilarious!

"What a Way to Go" - an absolutely hysterical collection of boyfriends (Dean Martin, Dick van Dyke, Paul Newman, Gene Kelly and Robert Mitchum) fall by the wayside of MacLaine.

I highly recommend them all!

I recently rewatched Jack Lemmon in Missing, which I hadn't seen in years. Lemmon's performance is just unbelievable. He plays the father of a young man who is arrested and disappears while living in Chile during a coup. In the beginning, we see him looking down his nose at his daughter-in-law and son for leaving the US and living what he considers an unrealistic, idealistic life. He has full faith in the "system" and believes that working through channels with the US Embassy will answer all their questions. As he and his daughter-in-law (played wonderfully by Sissy Spacek) are lied to over and over again by officials, you see that everything he has based his life on is slipping away. And he just wants his son back.

Considering what a great comedic actor he was, to see him in this role was even more impressive.

Lemmon may have been THE most versatile actor of my lifetime. While his comedic roles are wonderful he has four of the most powerful dramatic roles I've seen on his resume:

"The Days of Wine and Roses", "The China Syndrome", "Glengarry Glen Ross" and possibly the grittiest role I've EVER seen, "Save the Tiger".

I happen to love him in Grumpy Old Men.

I am not sure if it is the original one, but it does star Robert Mitchum. His acting was good though. I was reminded of "Man who knew too much" and "A shadow of doubt".

What did you mean here? Are you saying you're not a Hitchcock fan? Or not a fan of plot and story?

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE 1/2
(First Viewing)

What a beautiful and original movie. This may not be for everyone out there (check your Beatles fan I.D. card before entering). But what I loved the most was the way the director, Julie Taymor was able to attach a story to every song used. In some instances, I was able to appreciate the song in a different context (I Wanna Hold Your Hand and Strawberry Fields Forever come to mind quickly). A sometimes powerful and musically entertaining film.

I am a big fan of Hitchcock's camera work and sound design. I am not a big fan of his stories/plots. I find them too simplistic. However there are a couple of notable exceptions. I loved N by NW for its plot (of course in addition to his audio+visual genius) and Vertigo is one of my all time favorites (top 15). I like it for its excellent theme, plot and technical finesse.

These are my ratings of his movies as per how I remember them today:

1. Birds **
2. Psycho ***
3. North by Northwest ****
4. Vertigo ****
5. The man who knew too much (zero stars)
6. Rear Window ***
7. Strangers on a train *
8. Shadow of a doubt *

Its DVD is coming next week I think, I saw it on the "coming soon" list in my local blockbuster. Those who haven't seen it, don't miss it

Yeah it comes out on February 5. BTW, I found that FYE has an exclusive 3-disc set. I always purchase from Best Buy but I guess I'll get the 3-disc instead of the 2-disc set (I think the third disc has a making of feature).

THE INVASION 1/2
(First Viewing)

Prior to seeing THE GOLDEN COMPASS late last year, it's great to finally see Nicole Kidman in a meaningful movie away from the HAPPY FEET, BEWITCHED or THE STEPFORD WIVES. While not completely captivating, I will give it props for not losing its steam towards the end of the film. I really liked the last scene in particular with Kidman. And as much as I like Daniel Craig, there was one scene in here that I thought he did a terrible job with.

THE KING OF KONG: A FISTFUL OF QUARTERS 1/2
(First Viewing)

One of the best documentaries I've probably ever seen. If you're a gamer or just a casual video game fan, I think this is for you. Billy Mitchell, the Donkey Kong champion for the past 25 years and Gamer of the Century is being tested for his crown and claim as "champion of the world" by middle-school science teacher Steve Wiebe. What ensues is nothing short of amazing

THE DEVILS REJECTS

Blood soaked nonsense from Rob Zombie but i have to admit i really enjoyed this film (which disturbs me slightly)

Are you disturbed because you enjoyed it? Or disturbed because the movie was meant to disturb you?

THE ABYSS
(First Viewing)

I had seen parts of this before but never the whole thing. I didn't realize how long it was but I liked Cameron's take on the aliens. In every alien movie that I've seen they've come to our planet to harm us and take over but that's the case here. The FX and set designs (especially at the end) turned out very well.

Back when Michael Biehn was relevant, what ever happened to that guy? I always like him.

There will be blood ****
I have to admit that I had no intentions of watching it until it got the nominations. I wasn't too impressed by the trailer. Contrary to my expectation, this isn't a period movie. It is very intense and impacting. The music is excellent, mostly in the form of constant hums and slow modulations of single tones. The music creates a tense atmosphere throughout the movie. Unlike what I presumed, this is not about big oil companies fighting and spilling blood. It is mainly the story of one man, but there are several interesting and original characters in the movie. Highly recommended.

Both

THE DEPARTED
(Nth Viewing)

FINALLY I was able to see a film in Blu-Ray and this was my first. The quality was outstanding, it really showed a difference in the beginning but towards the middle of the film, I was focusing on the story more than the picture quality.

Just finish watching "Looks whos talking" a fav film of mine when i was a kid and spotted tessio from GF playing the Grandpa..

I don't know if that's a nonsensical sentence or just.....wait, it is.

FACES OF DEATH
(First Viewing)

I was finally able to get ahold of one of these to see how intense it was and I must say, it wasn't as bad as I expected. I like a lot of that had to do with the poor quality. It was almost like watching a grindhouse film.

RIGHT AT YOUR DOOR
(First Viewing)

From the previews this looked pretty interesting but thank goodness it's only 95 minutes. The first half hour of the film the man is wondering if his wife is dead or alive and the last hour he's inside the house talking to her while she's outside. That's it! It had a nice little twist at the end but by then I was just ready for the credits to roll.

THE KING OF CALIFORNIA 1/2
(First Viewing)

Not as bad as I anticipated. I haven't watched SIDEWAYS yet but after watching this, I'm more interested in it now. It was great to see Michael Douglas play a crazy mental patient and Evan Rachel Wood continues to grow and impress me as an actress. I think she's one of the finest young actress in Hollywood today.

COBRA 1/2
(First Viewing)

A decent Sly 80s action film outside of the ROCKY and RAMBO franchises. The movie started off great with Sly in the supermarket with the maniac but from then on he just didn't seem to have the same swagger or coolness about him. The story always wasn't explained in great details for the villains but again, it was pretty decent for a popcorn 80s action flick.

Hanged.

Myself.

Just have.

I.

Now THAT's a real review!

RAMBO
(First Viewing)

I don't really know why this was dumped in January. I know it's not going to break any box office records but I think it may be one of the best action films of the year (we'll have to see). But it's definitely probably the best action film I've seen since either TRANSFORMERS, 300, or CRANK. I'd even dare say it's up there with the original RAMBO in terms of the franchise. Now if Stallone could only get the ball rolling with COBRA 2