American Gangster

***1/2 Stars

"My man..."

Denzel Washington is nothin' but cool as he grins and says these words to anybody who impresses him, cops or dealers. American Gangster is brilliantly acted, wonderfully told, and definitely the work of a master.

The film had a lot of trouble getting to the big screen. Antoine Fuqua, (director of Training Day) was originally set to direct with Washington to star. The film was cancelled due to budget concerns, Fuqua was fired, and Denzel took a 20$ million paycheck. Soon after, it turned up into the hands of director Ridley Scott and producer Brian Grazer, with Denzel back in the lead and another 20$ million. Russell Crowe joined the cast and the dynamic foursome would eventually turn in a dynamite of a crime-thriller.

This is the true story of drug-lord Frank Lucas and how New Jersey honest cop Richie Richards (Crowe) took him down. The very first shot of the movie is Lucas doing his job. He tortures a man, covers him in gasoline, lights him on fire and puts numerous bullets into his head. We don't know who this man is or what he did, but now we know Lucas is a man you don't mess with...period.

After Lucas finally gets settled into the mob boss persona, things shift towards Roberts. His wife leaves him with their only son, his partner dies, and he has sex with a lot of women. Good for him. Him and his wife go to court for custody of their child, but of course Roberts has to have a sudden epiphany that he's a bad father when his ex-wife tells him he belongs in hell. Again, good for him. So all in all, Roberts is an extremely honest cop, but yet can't be honest with the people he loves.

The movie is so authentic to its time that the film looks like it was made in the same time it takes place, right smack in the middle of the Vietnam War. Scott swiftly connects the war to Lucas. In the beginning, Lucas is in control and calm. When the war goes crazy, so does Lucas. When the cease fire occurs, Lucas begins to lose his drug connections from military officials stationed in Bangkok. Washington captures his character perfectly, giving a restrained performance to begin the film, then showing his emotional downfall without being pretentious.

The movie is all drugs. DRUGS, DRUGS, DRUGS. It doesn't lose its historical accuracy for cheap thrills, especially the ending. Though un-climatic, it has a much bigger impact when you see Lucas's aged face coming out of a fifteen year sentence.

By the way, I just have to add that Cuba Gooding Jr. is in about three scenes of the film, and it's better than any performance he's had in ten years. (So, Jerry Maguire)

Saw IV

0 Stars

I have lied to my readers. I told all of you that I usually only walk out on one movie a year and this year's winner was Rush Hour 3. Saw IV joins this category as a truly disgusting site where no one wants to be apart of, except for the people shopping at a torture porn shop or online at www.lacerationfetishes.com

Dan in Real Life

**1/2 Stars

Steve Carell has really come into his own these past few years, with his over-the-top supporting performances (Anchorman & Bruce Almighty), his successful lead role in NBC's The Office, and his more subdued work in the Oscar Winner Little Miss Sunshine. Dan in Real Life joins Sunshine as one of Carell's most personal and realistic performances. Too bad the film falls shy of greatness due to a lackluster and unfortunately clichéd ending. Also, notice how I didn't include Evan Almighty? In my mind, that film no longer exists.

Dan in Real Life is supposed to be wise about human nature. And it succeeds to a point, and that point comes at a crucial climatic moment that fails to give us real truth. It goes for the heart, but skips important reasoning in the process.

Dan Burns (Carell) is a widowed father, devoted to his three daughters who mistake him for being an over protected basket case. However, to his family and friends, he certainly becomes one after he meets Marie (Juliette Binoche) in a bookstore. She is the first woman Dan has fallen for since the death of his wife. He runs home to tell his entire family, only to find out that she is dating his brother Mitch (Dane Cook). What starts of as an extremely failed idea for a sitcom manages to swoon smoothly above the level of disaster. However, the only problem with this idea is that somewhere down the line, a sitcom idea must have a sitcom ending.

Now, I did enjoy the film's theme of family values. The entire film is mostly set in a family household involving issues we the viewers can all relate to: A widowed father, a daughter in love, learning how to drive, family traditions and games, and in this case a crucial time for the maturity of Dan's children. Dan's change of heart over the course of the film challenges the regrets of his past and decisions of his future. What takes away from these moments is an ending way too comfortable for us to believe. The title should be Dan in Hollywood Life.

From the Archives: A Beautiful Mind

**** Stars

A Beautiful Mind, which won four Oscars in 2001 (including Best Picture) is definitely an Oscar worthy film, even though The Fellowship of Ring should have been claimed the winner. With two movies out this fall, 3:10 to Yuma and American Gangster, Russell Crowe has had a credit history of amazing roles, A Beautiful Mind being one of his most memorable. Here, he plays, John Nash, who was a brilliant mathematician, able to unlock any code and solve any problem known in mathematics. Suddenly, in the middle stages of his life, he began to suffer from schizophrenia. His delusions affected his life, his work, and his family. His wife Alicia and his son John Nash Jr. tried to help him deal with this awful disease.

After years of difficulty and hardship, Nash was able to control his disease and receive the Nobel piece prize. His research helped in global trade, the economy, and even breakthroughs in evolutionary biology. He began to live his American Dream. His dream was his work and his wife.

Other cast members include Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly (who won best supporting actress in the role of John's wife), and Paul Bettany.

Ron Howard directs this complex subject with sincere simplicity. Through all the hard ache suffered, the film ends on a wonderful note. The words John says to his wife....

“I've made the most important discovery of my career. Most important discovery of my life. It's only in the mysterious equation of love that any logical reasons can be found. I'm only here because of you. You're the only reason I am. You are all my reasons...”

Elizabeth: The Golden Age

*** Stars

Queen Elizabeth I of England is a fascinating story. Her successes and downfalls had enormous effects on the outcome of Europe in the 16th century. The Queen had to fight many battles on the field and in the right to her privacy. Elizabeth was a virgin queen, with no heir to her thrown and without the love of another man. Rumors throughout England, and even Europe created a debate of whether or not the power of this sort of freedom would effect the decisions she would make in times of hard days. She stated that she is indeed a mother...a mother to her people.

While the original film in 1998 showed the rise of her power, the sequel is a story of how Elizabeth (Cate Blanchett, who can do no wrong) kept her power, even when the strong men of the world sought to destroy her crown. King Philip II of Spain challenged her rule, bringing a war to her with his Spanish armada and powerful army. The King demanded Catholicism to be spread all throughout England, destroying the Queen's faith of Protestantism. Sir Francis Walsingham (the always impressive Geoffrey Rush) continued to aid the Queen and her court as politics and her personal life intertwined. He tried to uncover the traitors of her rule. One turned out to be her own cousin Mary Stuart of Scotland (Samantha Morton) who was next in line to rule England. When she committed treason (she tried to kill the Queen), she was punished by death. After discovering this, the Spanish Armada sailed to England to throw the rule of Elizabeth.

The movie not only displays the Politics of Elizabeth's rule, but also the small personal life that had become of her. She bared a forbidden attraction for Sir Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen) and to keep him around, she asked her favorite aid Bess to befriend him. She became jealous when the two may have seemed to fall for one another. Elizabeth began to understand that the world she lived in prevented her from obtaining the warmness of a husband, and the wonder of a child.

The film has a hard time deciding what kind of film it wants to be. It spends a lot of time with Elizabeth and Walter rambling about the ideas of loving each other, while Spain prepares for its invasion. To the filmmakers credit, this idea does work, but Clive Owen's character is to fake to feel real. Its as though he appears just for the sake of having a love story. He is also a swashbuckler to the highest order, as he sores through the air on his ship looking like a wannabe Jack Sparrow.

The movie is still definitely worth seeing. Blanchett received an Oscar nod for the original film and keeps the performance here leveled with that one. So if the Academy doesn't want to be hypocritical, she should be nominated again. Now I am not taking anything away from her with that statement. She is a wonderful actress no matter what role she dives into. Even if you role your eyes at some of the parochial love lines, you may gain some knowledge on this subject as the film lets you dive into the world's history without forgetting the importance of entertainment.

Gone Baby Gone

***1/2 Stars

Because I'm from the Boston area, you may feel like I'm cheating when I give this movie a huge recommendation. Not all Boston films are perfect (cough What's the Worst that Could Happen? or Alex and Emma cough). This is just another worthy addition to the Boston crime genre.

My point is simple. Though it is always nice to see a story of where you come from, it better be done right. Director Ben Affleck (in a remarkable debut) takes a dirty section of Dorchester (an outer-skirt town outside the city) and turns in a fast pace, brutally violent thriller, one that will stick in your head for a long time.

Casey Affleck ignites the screen as Patrick Kenzie, a young detective out to help a young mother (Amy Ryan) find her 4-year old child who was kidnapped by an unknown suspect. Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris are wonderful as a cop and a veteran detective assigned to the case as well. Through twists and turns Patrick follows the clues in an effort to stop a potential death of innocent young girl.

Affleck's debut goes far beyond promising. If someone told me this was directed by a veteran like Ridley Scott or even Clint Eastwood, I would take your word for it. While the film's twists get borderline extreme, it manages to hold together without running out of gas. I'm looking forward to see where the Affleck brothers go with their careers after this. Ben has resurrected his while Casey is on the verge of stardom. If they stick together, we may see the two become a legendary pair.

Across the Universe

**** Stars

What a lovely film this is. Full of life, important topics, and wonderful visuals. Across the Universe explores the lives of young adults in love and how you need nothing else.

The film is a musical through Beatles songs and characters. Jude, Lucy, Max, Sadie, Rita, Prudence, JoJo, Dr. Robert, Mr. Kite are all present. Jude (Jim Sturgess) is a dock worker who leaves his girlfriend in a quest to find his estranged father in America. When he gets there, he meets the girl of his dreams named Lucy (The wonderful Evan Rachel Wood). She is a sheltered American girl whose brother Max (Joe Anderson) is drafted to fight in the Vietnam War, and through that she becomes an activist in the peace movement. Other various characters enter their lives and help them through their struggles through songs that made the world stand still (or erupt them to their feet).

Realists will be compelled to call this a formulaic waste of pretentious garbage. Now, I never experienced Vietnam or lived through the Primetime of The Beatles, but I found this to be one of the most magical movies of the year. Films rarely relate to the personal feelings of confused young adults correctly like this one; who questions authority, chooses to ignore a parents wish and learn from their own mistakes, and where falling in love may be the answer to all the questions. Whether you are Here, There, and Everywhere, writing a letter to Prudence, declaring you are a Walrus, saying hey to Jude, Letting it Be, running through Strawberry Fields Forever, wanting to hold a hand, or crossing the universe, you will find an uplift in these memories even if you have no idea what I just said.

Michael Clayton

*** Stars

George Clooney is one of the few actors alive who can play himself in a title role and receive a Best Actor nomination. That's not an insult, it just proves he was born to act. His performance is a throwback to classic movie stars like Gregory Peck and Henry Fonda. Slick, yet rightfully flawed, his character Michael Clayton is stuck in the middle of corporate greed testing every standard of human morality.

We learn who Clayton is right from the beginning. "I'm not a miracle-worker, I'm a janitor," he says to a client that has just been involved with a hit-and-run. He cleans up the mess of his corporate clients by getting his hands dirty, even though he has personal problems of his own. He is a divorced father who has family debts and a gambling problem. Instead of worrying about his own life, he tires himself out by fixing other people's mistakes. His career is a dead-end.

His old friend and colleague Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson) is an unstable lawyer who has been working on behalf of bigger clients than his health can handle. When he doesn't take his medicine, his behavior causes Clayton to step in and take care of the mess. However, things start to spiral out of control, when one of the company's members against Edens and Clayton steps in. Karen Cowder (Oscar winner Tilda Swinton) has to make sure her company is protected from any incriminating exposure or malpractice.

Although exciting and intelligent, the film is strangely familiar to garner seven Oscar nominations. It's build-up brings us to an exciting climax, but the conclusion plays it safe to make sure that its end rings true to a possible success for the lead character. Though uneven, Michael Clayton is an old-school thriller that focuses more on complex characters than pointless violence. My point of view is from someone who has seen the film after its massive hype, so maybe its natural for me not to join the true love.

The Kingdom

*** Stars

The Kingdom, which was slated to open back in April of this year, manages to rise above that scheduling conflict and turn in a gritty, fast-paced thriller. Unfortunately, that's all it turns in.

Jamie Foxx is up to his usual tricks (like his other roles in Jarhead and Miami Vice) as a bad-ass in training and turns in an affective performance as Ronald Fleury, an FBI Special Agent who assembles an elite team to find a killer responsible for a terrorist attack (where Americans are killed) inside a Western housing compound in Saudi Arabia. His team is an A-list class with Chris Cooper, Jennifer Gardner, and a surprise dramatic turn from Arrested Development's Jason Bateman. When the team lands into the desert, they are unwelcome by the Saudi's. Through determination and passion, the team must find a way to come to an agreement with the them and find who is responsible before another tragic event occurs.

The movie is extremely face-paced. Peter Berg's (directed the wonderful Friday Night Lights) sharp direction really lets you forget that the film's characters are underwritten and puppets in a typical action thriller. Still, after the action is over, the movie ends on a note that brings the conclusion to a satisfying close.

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

***1/2 Stars

Hollywood veteran Sidney Lumet is in his eighties and is directing material that is a shadow of Quentin Tarantino. At first, I was having trouble with Before the Devil Knows You're Dead because it reminded me too much of a Tarantino film with its dialogue driven characters and playing with the order of time. So I had to stop for a moment and get that out of mind before it took away from the film. After seeing it for it was, this is a film powered by an electric performance from Philip Seymour Hoffman. Ethan Hawke tries to match his caliber and comes up short, but in a way it works here because Hawke is the weaker brother when it comes to the situations they get themselves in. The situations are two people who can be good people, but choose to do very bad things. And this is clear when the tag-line of the film is "No one was suppose to get hurt."

What makes Lumet such a great director is his patience towards camera movements. He lets things fold naturally, as if you are actually in the same room with all of his characters. The very first shot of the film feels like a sister to the sex-scene in Marc Fosters's Monsters Ball with Andrew Hanson (Hoffman) and his wife Gina (the gorgeous Marisa Tomei) on vacation having some nice animal sex. Its shocking at first, but after they finish they discuss things any normal couple talks about: happiness, fears, doubts, their future, and the fear of becoming distant. What Andy doesn't know is that Gina is also having an affair, with his brother Henry (Hawke).

Henry is a divorced man unable to pay his child support bills. So when his brother Andy proposes a jewelry store heist, it takes a small amount of convincing for him to go along with it, until he tells them that it will be their parents store they are robbing. Albert Finney and Rosemary Harris play their parents Charles and Nanette, who are just living out their final years together. They own the jewelry store with steady business and without any serious problems, until Nanette is killed in the failed heist by his brothers. Nothing was supposed to happen. No mess, no deaths, no problems. Right?

Wrong.

The two are now forced to cover their own skins, while also grieving for the death of their mother and now the emptiness of their father. Their downfall is filled with regret, mischief, betrayal, and utter tragedy. These two failed to think of the worst case scenario because they assumed that it was the perfect heist. Well in a way it was, on paper. The store would be robbed with Andy and Henry collecting the profit and the insurance covering their parents. Throughout this entire film I just thought about a quote my mother has been saying to me for literally my entire life: "Think Before You Act." That also could have been the film's tagline.

Eastern Promises

***1/2 Stars

David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises marks the first time the director left his home country of Canada to make a film. Shot in London, this unique crime thriller is an interesting study of characters, caught in lives of hidden sadness and unfulfilling sacrifices.

Viggo Mortensen is in top form as Nikolai Luzhin, a Russian-born driver for the Vory V Zakone (the Russian Mafia, literally meaning "Thieves in Law"). To prepare for his role, Mortensen traveled alone to Moscow to study the language and lives of the Vory V Zakone. This group tells their story through tattoos (which turns out to very important in the story) and each one signifies a stepping stone of their life in the mob. You will see Mortensen covered in these, while also perfecting Nikolai's Siberian accent.

Nikolai, like George Clooney's Michael Clayton, is a janitor. He cleans up messes when things get dirty. However, Eastern Promises has a much darker setting. While Clayton took care of lobbying and hit-and-runs, Nikolai is cutting up bodies and discarding them properly. Through his ordeals, Nikolai comes across an innocent midwife named Anna Khitrova (Naomi Watts) who slips into the lives of people she shouldn't be involved with. When a fourteen year old mother dies while giving birth on Anna's shift, she is forced to find a home for the child. She comes across the girl's diary. Written in Russian, Anna is forced to find someone to translate it. She finds a card in the diary for the Trans-Saberian restaurant owned by Seymon, the boss of the family Nikolai works for. She wonders over to find some clues and he immediately agrees to help her translate the diary. Why is he so willing to help her? Who is this man? The past of all of these characters are intertwined in a story of interpersonal connections inside dialogue of social utterances.

Eastern Promises is more mainstream and has a similar style to Cronenberg's last directorial effort A History of Violence. Both tell a small segment of a bigger story, like a middle chapter of something we have already seen. It digs deep into scenarios that would be deleted from an ordinary crime thriller. For example, we see the film shot in Nikolai's and Anna's perspective, witnessing the lives of a Mafia family losing grips with reality and tangling itself into inner hysteria. Both lead characters are world's apart but both understand what they have to do. Anna is not just an ordinary woman caught in a web of bad people. She is trying to right a wrong similar to regrets of her past. She in fact suffered a stillborn birth years prior, giving her the thrust to find this baby a rightful owner.

Viggo Mortensen brings his character alive with the intent of showing a human, not a figure. Although Nikolai is externally fearless, he is having doubts because of his past and what made him get to where he is. Will he run away or finish what he started? The ending's setup begins to turn melodramatic, but a last minute fix steers it to a place you won't see coming. A twist of fate brings everything to a rightfully fitting finale.

The Brave One

*** Stars

The Brave one is an excruciatingly difficult film to watch. I saw this on a Sunday afternoon and lets say I ended the weekend on a rather strange note. However, Jodie Foster and Terrence Howard are two great actors at the top of their game in this brutal drama about one woman who loses herself throughout the entire film.

Erica Bain (Foster) is getting married. She is madly in love with him. Now of course in a drama like this, even if you haven't seen the trailer, you know that things can't end happy. So what happens next? Her and her loving fiance are brutally attacked, leaving Erica badly wounded and her fiancé dead.

When she recovers, she doesn't leave her apartment because she is afraid of the outside world. After a long time in solitude, she hits the streets again, but buys a gun in the process. She begins to prowl the streets at night, putting justice to those who are responsible for her beating. This puts her on a violent killing spree, one she may never get out of. She befriends a NYPD detective (Terrence Howard) who is on her case. He is unaware that Erica is actually the one committing these acts.

Director Neil Gordan (Breakfast on Pluto) executes stunning camera work here, giving us a haunted tale of brutality and a vast emptiness. The movie is fast paced and extremely interesting to watch. The plot however, goes from confusing, to convoluted, to insane. Still, this is such an interesting character study with such great performances from the two leads, that they dig a hole you won't be able to crawl out from.

3:10 to Yuma

**** Stars

Another four star review, and I'm loving every minute of it.

Russell Crowe and Christian Bale are two of the finest actors on the planet, both giving Oscar caliber performances in one of the best westerns I have seen in recent memory.

The story is beautiful, poetic, and staggeringly exciting. James Mangold (director of the great Walk the Line) brings back the western genre with such urgency and respect that it deserves to be a bonafide box office crowd pleaser.

Dan Evans (Bale), a civil war survivor turned rancher struggles to support family during a long drought, which extremely hurts his ranch. He takes a job to transport the evil outlaw Benjamin Wade (Crowe), the most notorious gangster of them all. Once the two meet, the criminal tries to tempt him into giving him more money then the job intends to give him. Obviously Evans is tempted, but he is determined to send this ruthless man to the Yuma prison.

The movie works dramatically in addition to being a flawless entertainment. I have never seen the original Yuma (which I will watch very soon) but to me this a original piece of cinema that brings us closer to balance with this years trilogy curse (Spidey 3, Shrek 3, Rush Hour 3 etc...) and hopefully this is not the last time Crowe and Bale unite. This is the duo of the year.

In The Valley of Elah

***1/2 Stars

What baffles me about our country's choice in movies is the evidence pertaining to films that either strike gold at the box-office or plummet into oblivion. For example, we had Meet the Spartans (a film only eight year olds seeing their first PG-13 movie ever would enjoy) open strongly at $18.5 million. This is a film that ads further proof to our obsession with celebrity gossip and pointless gags, where In the Valley of Elah is a hard-hitting-slam-dunk of timely importance. What's its total domestic gross? $6 million.

I wonder how the cast & crew felt about their film's result. Director Paul Haggis has already been getting negative backlash for his Best Picture win with Crash. For those mad that Brokeback didn't win, I understand your loss, but Haggis is not responsible for the Academy's choice (even though I believe it was the right one). ITVOE's $6 million opening probably comes from the speculation before its opening. The buzz was not good. People did not want to see Haggis succeed again, even though out of all the post 9/11 films, this one was the critical favorite. Tommy Lee Jones played a big part in its artistic success.

Jones is perfectly cast as Hank Deerfield, an army veteran whose son is stationed over in Iraq. What makes this performance so strong is Jones commitment to authenticity and simplicity. The film begins with Hank living his everyday life. He wakes up, eats breakfast, puts up the American Flag, fixes his truck, does errands, and spends time with his wife (played by the emotional Susan Sarandon). This is an American, one who understands reality but also expects something in return. When his son disappears after returning home from the Iraq War, Hank soon discovers that serving your country is not what it used to be. His son was murdered, in a way no parent should witness. With the help of local Detective Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron), Hank journey's back to try and discover the hidden truth behind his son's heartbreaking death.

The relationship between Jones and Theron's characters is more complex than we would expect. Theron is not just a detective trying to get ahead. Her life is explored through the case of Hank's son. The case not only affects her work, but also her role as a mother. There is a touching scene where Hank tells a story to her son about where David battled Goliath, right in the valley of Elah.

Out of all the Iraq War films, I would say this one is the most sincere. Not for one second does this film promote anti-American propaganda. Haggis and company show their love for what our country stands for. However, they, along with myself, just want those running it to give us a sign that we truly are a land of the free and home of the brave. There's a scene where Hank is driving past a school and notices that the American flag is upside down. He tells the janitor who put the flag up (he is of Spanish decent) that it’s a distress code, signifying that our nation is under duress. Should Hank leave it the way it is?

Superbad

**** Stars

What we have here is the Dazed and Confused for this generation.

It's that good. Between Knocked Up and Superbad, we have what's missing in today's comedies, and his name is Seth Rogan. Based on his own high school experience, Rogan perfectly captures the awkwardness, frustration, and beauty of high school, the days that we all miss dearly. (Example: the only thing they worry about is how to get booze for that night's party or if they can get laid, instead of serious issues involving politics, war, and murder. If only that would last our whole lives...)

Two co-dependent high school guys (played by Jonah Hill and Michael Cera, who's characters names are the two writers of the movie, Seth and Even) want to hook up with girls before they graduate and go off to different colleges, but, after a monumental night just trying to buy alcohol for a school party, overcoming their separation anxiety becomes a greater challenge than getting the girls.

Behind the gut-busting laughter is also the reason why this is a comedy classic, and that is its reality towards the situation it puts itself in. We all went through exactly what these guys have, trying to find booze, where none of this would happen if they would just lower the drinking age to 18 so kids can live out their lives the way they choose to live it.

Rush Hour 3

1/2 Star

I walk out on about one movie a year, Rush Hour 3 is this year's winner.

About 31 minutes into this film, I realized that there was no reason to see the end of this film, because the plot is so obvious and so familiar that it would just be more brain cells lost for me.

Now I'm a fan of Rush Hour and even Rush Hour 2. I found them to be escapist fun. Here, that fun has completely vanished. So I left the theater, knowing I could still get my money's worth with The Bourne Ultimatum playing right next door.

The Bourne Ultimatum

**** Stars

In a summer of threequels that have mostly failed or have just had moderate success, The Bourne Ultimatum makes every movie this summer look like a cartoon that was rejected from PBS. Not only is this the best movie of the summer, but it may be one of the best action films of the decade.

All Jason Bourne (the always terrific Matt Damon) ever wanted to do was to disappear. Instead, he is one of the most hunted men of his time, and he still doesn't know why. Having lost his memory and the one person he loved, he is undeterred by the barrage of bullets and a new generation of highly-trained killers. Bourne has only one objective: to go back to the beginning and find out who he was. Bourne will hunt down his past in order to find a future. He must travel from Moscow, Paris and London to Tangier and New York City as he continues his quest to find the real Jason Bourne--all the while trying to outmaneuver the scores of cops, federal officers and Interpol agents with him in their cross hairs. Who is Jason Bourne and what has he done? Where did this all begin? The ending will literally blow you away.

The Bourne films just keep getting better and better. Coming of his Oscar Nomination for Best Director with United 93, director Paul Greengrass (who also directed the sequel The Bourne Supremacy) doesn't miss a beat.

Last year's Casino Royale upped the ante to the espionage genre, and this film beats it right back. I guarantee this film will have a spot on my top ten list of films this year as one of summer's best films.

The Simpsons Movie

*** Stars

Thank god this movie doesn't suck.

In fact, the Simpsons Movie is one of the best Simpsons episodes in quite some time. But also with that, it's just a long Simpsons episode. But there is certainly nothing wrong with that. Homer is up to his usual tricks and still manages to bring laughter to all of its fans. The first 30 minutes are hilarious in its own screwball, political way. The Plot: the city of Springfield orders a clean up of the polluted Lake Springfield and bans waste dumps there. However, someone forgot to tell Homer Simpson that, and when he dumps a silo of "Pig Crap" in it, he inadvertently dooms Springfield, his family, and himself.

Homer Simpsons must be the only character in the world that can destroy his town from his pig's crap. And with that, it's pure genius.

The films does lose its steam at the end, slowing down the side splitting laughs, but it does show the struggles and misfortunes of a typical American Family who think they all want different things, but can't stand to be away from one another no matter what.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

*** Stars

Harry Potter is getting older. And in this film, you can tell.

It is clear now that no one but Daniel Radcliffe can be Harry Potter. His performance is stronger in every film and here the film knows it. This is a movie for Harry and by Harry.

As his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry approaches, 15-year-old Harry Potter is like any other young teenager, complete with regular outbursts of rage, a high school crush, and rebelling against the establishment. It's been yet another infuriating and boring summer with the despicable Dursleys, who in the beginning found him on the porch of their house, took him in and treated him like total scum. Harry is feeling especially edgy at the lack of news from the magic world, wondering when the freshly revived evil Lord Voldemort will strike.

When he returns to Hogwarts, Harry sees that things are no longer the same. Hermione Granger (Emma Thomson) and Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) are back along side Harry as all three get older and wiser, but this time Hermoine and Ron seem to be in the background and are only there when Harry needs him.

But it sort of works well that way here. This part of the series, from what I've seen is Harry's transition into something much worse and hateful and the film realizes that it needs to show this part through the eyes of him and not his friends.

I have just started to read the Harry Potter Series, so I don't know what's missing from this film, but as a person who has yet to read the Order of the Phoenix, I still find this Potter flick a success. Although I'm sure some readers must be missing a lot of their favorite moments given that this book is the longest of them all (pushing 800 pages) and the film version is the shortest of them all (2 Hours 18 Minutes).

Live Free or Die Hard

*** Stars

John McClane is back with a bang...

Bruce Willis has brought back to life the role that made him a star. Pushing 60 years old has not stopped him from kicking total ass.

On the July 4th holiday, an attack on the vulnerable United States infrastructure begins to shut down the entire nation. The mysterious figure behind the scheme known as Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant) has figured out every modern angle to prevent anyone from damaging his plan, convoluted as it is. Still, it does give us a taste of what the world is rapidly becoming...a technological nightmare. Our greatest inventions could very soon become our downfall. A perfectly cast Justin Long plays Matt Farrell, a tech-nerd who buddies up with McClane to help him stop this meltdown.

Willis rocks the screen with his old-school attitude and macho sense of invincibility. Sure McClane looks like Superman at some points, (especially when he outruns an F-18 with an eighteen wheel semi), but the action is non stop and has lots of fun with its stunts. In the words of the television edited version of Die Hard...Yippee Ki Yay Melon Farmer.