In a word, I thought this movie was gross. Gross in that, faces actually come off! But John Woo does a terrific job of directing this film and John Travolta and Nicolas Cage (which I find is my new favorite actor) act brilliantly in this film. I won't go into details about this movie. Just go see it if you're an action movie fanatic.
GRADE: B

Ah yes....another movie about screaming teenagers that end up saving the world from utter terror. This is the same with The Faculty, in which teens from Herrington High School find out that aliens have taken over the bodies of the school faculty, students, and soon the world. Oh yikes! You can guess what will happen. But despite predictability, I was really entertained by this movie. Sure, it was cliche, but it was fun to see how cliche it was.
GRADE: D

This is a really great holiday movie. Don't ask me what that means, but after watching this movie, I felt all gooey inside and really had an urge to grow up soon and start my own family. Nicolas Cage plays a Jack Campbell, a single, hot shot Wall Street guy who wakes up one morning living the life he could have lived if he had stayed with his college girlfriend (Tea Leoni). The change in lifestyles is at first unbearable, but Campbell soon discovers happiness in this suburbial, family life. It's a movie about the way things could have been and being content with the simple (if not the less monetarily-prosperous) things in life.
GRADE: A-

Vin Diesel portrays Dominic Toretto, a car racer, with a suspicious side job. Paul Walker is the undercover cop, Brian, trying to figure out if Dominic is responsible for a series of big rig hijacks. Brian's lust for both cars and Dominic's sister start to skew his position as Dominic's new friend after saving Dominic from local cops breaking up a street race. Rival racers led by Johnny Tran (portrayed by Rick Yune) pose another threat to both Dominic and Brian. Okay, I'm sorry this intro is so long. This movie has a cheesy script and boring plot. If you're gonna watch it, it'll be for the muscle cars and racing scenes, which are few, but well worth it. It seems this movie was just another excuse to show flashy cars and cool stunts. It does just that, but not much else. (Oh, and Vin Diesel is not only hot, but he still does a good job as an actor in this poorly scripted movie. You'll see him around Hollywood a lot, so watch out!)
GRADE: C+

TRiPpy! Fight Club was one really well directed (David Fincher) movie about well...a fight club, created by Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) as an outlet for the world's superficiality....I think. Actually, the entire movie is up for your own interpretation, which will probably be the reason for mixed reviews. Edward Norton plays Durden's "partner." He's the rational side of the duo. Anyways, the movie's a bit gruesome, with plenty of bloody faces and broken noses. Hmm...seems like I'm at a loss for words now... It's not debateable whether you should see this movie or not (you should), but it is debatable whether or not you'll like it. For me, I just really really liked the script, acting, and directing...
GRADE: A

Very scary. You don't really think about death until you realize you might be dying, which is the case for Alex (Devon Sawa) and the half dozen other survivors of a plane crash that Alex forsaw. But death isn't letting them get away with it. It's a terrifying movie, though predicatable at times, but it's supposed to be (duh...they're expected to die), but it's still frightening. A good plot, good scary atmosphere. Could be better, but suffices for scaring you.
GRADE: B

This adorable movie stars an overprotective clown fish (voice of Albert Brooks) who journeys through the ocean to find his only son Nemo (voice of Alexander Gould) after Nemo is captured by a scuba-diving dentist from Australia. And it's a race against time to save Nemo before the dentist's careless niece comes in to snatch Nemo up! So cute! And funny too! Ellen DeGeneres gives voice to a colorful yet forgetful Dory. There's also a multitude of other lively characters: a "recovering" shark, a surfer turtle, a giant whale, and of course all the fun creatures that are stuck in the same tank as Nemo (a starfish, a blowfish, a "cleaning" crab). This movie has a whole range of fun characters and is a good way to spend an evening or afternoon with family and friends! Fun for the whole family! Giddiness!!
GRADE: A

About a young boy from the Bronx (Robert Brown) who befriends the reclusive William Forrester (Sean Connery), Find Forrester is a nice movie, but it feels like it could have been much better. Directed by Gus Van Sant (Great Expectations, Good Will Hunting), the movie has pleasant jazz music, but it doesn't seem to go with the mood you'd expect from this type of movie, which seems like an academia/discovering oneeself type of thing. I could be all wrong about this movie analysis, but overall, it's a nice plot, but mediocre movie.
GRADE: B

This is a very light comedy that is also very cute. Robin Williams is adequately casted as the absent minded professor who creates this green goo, flubber. Anyways, it's more of a children's film so i don't recomment it if you are going alone and you happen to be over 10 years old. But it's still very cute.
GRADE: B-

Josh Hartnett is HOT! This movie is NOT....so much. Hartnett plays a young professional who gives up sex/intimacy/touching/kissing/masturbating/anything sexual for Lent, and also due to the agony of realizing his ex-girlfriend (Vinessa Shaw) is getting married. Fortunately and unfortunately, he meets the perfect girl (Shannyn Sossamon). Now he's up against his own desires, his friends betting on him breaking the vow of celibacy, and running into his ex. This movie is good because Josh Hartnett is a good actor, even in a plot as silly as this (even in ridiculous horror films like Halloween: H20). He really puts all his efforts into his characters. Too bad the rest of this movie is pretty dumb. Um....that's all I have to say.
GRADE: C+

The Four Feathers are the white feathers representing cowardice that were given to British army resignee Harry (Heath Ledger) on the eve of going to war in Sudan in the 19th century. To redeem his honor, Harry goes undercover as a native in Sudan to help the British and to prove himself to those who claimed his cowardice. Also starring Wes Bentley as Harry's best friend, Kate Hudson as Harry's fiancee, and Djimon Hounsou as Harry's "guardian angel," The Four Feathers puts in a good effort to create an epic film despite its juvenile cast. Not that the cast acted like juveniles - they do, in fact, have very convincing roles - but I felt the age of the actors gave the film a more amateur feel. But the thing that bothered me most was the whole premise of the film: that Harry's cowardice had to be misproven by undergoing extreme circumstances that seem to be 10 times worse than simply going to war. I mean, it seems very extreme that the four feathers gave him the will to go through the harshest of circumstances just to redeem himself. Of course, I live in a completely different era and country, so I wouldn't entirely understand. In any case, the actors are likely, the plot was okay.
GRADE: B-

Harrison Ford is awesome in this movie! He's plays a doctor who's accused of murdering his wife. Then he goes and tries to find out who killed it's wife since, of course, it's not him). Tommy Lee Jones is always really great. He plays a U.S. Marshall. It's a very enjoyable and exciting movie.
GRADE: A-

This hilariously depressing film is very downbeat throughout the movie and it's not until the funal 5 minutes that you can finally feel good about the movie. About 6 unemployed men who try to make money by doing a Chippendale act, the movie has a sad, sympathetic quality about it. It was indeed funny, as most reviews said, but the sympathetic ambience suffocates the movie a bit.
GRADE: B+

This is a very funny movie because it's corny and silly. Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman (among others) are the cast of Galaxy Quest, a popular television show. But real aliens, escaping extermination from other aliens, call upon them because they think that they're real. It's all very fun and silly, which makes it enjoyable. Not a superb movie, and sure there are lots of loopholes and stuff you can argue about, but it's made to entertain. You'll either laugh with it or not laugh at all.
GRADE: B

Oh gosh! This is probably the most "elaborate" movie I have ever seen! I can't really describe it without giving the whole plot away. Well, it can be a bit of a pit-bottom movie, where everything doesn't work out for the main character (Michael Douglas in this case) and two hours pass and you begin to wonder if there's a point to this movie. But there is. It's not until you see the entire movie that you realize that it's got the most basic plot, but it's done n the most elaborate way.
GRADE: A-

It takes a certain generation to enjoy a film like this, and I don't think I am that generation. Set in mid-19th century New York City, Gangs of New York is the tale of street vengeance, thievery, politics, conscription, and corruption, pitting so-called American natives led by Bill the Butcher (Daniel Day-Lewis) against Irish immigrants led by Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio). The movie is a glimpse of early American street warfare (still plaguing America today). Director Martin Scorcese does a visually stomach-upsetting job of showing early New York gang violence in all its bloody and gut-wretching gore. It's a gruesome and political movie, but what I found difficult was delving into the lives of these people and really feeling their grief and torment.
GRADE: B

Even a well-chosen cast couldn't save this trying script. Cate Blanchett stars as a fortune teller who is asked to help solve the murder of the fiance (Katie Holmes) of the school principa; (Greg Kinnear). Her psychic abilities lead her to blame a wifebeater (Keanu Reeves), whose wife (Hilary Swank) has been going to Blanchett for readings. So there's a murder...but then there's the trial, which gets quite boring, then Blanchett's character starts getting weird visions, which is pretty creepy. In all, the plot is not that bad, but whoever wrote it could have done a better job.
GRADE: C+

Gladiator is a gorgeous and magnificently created film by Ridley Scott. Russell Crowe is spell-binding as Maximus, the Roman general-turned-slave-turned-gladiator who's out to avenge wrongfully-murdered emperor, Marcus Aurelius, and also Maximus' own murdered family. Joaquin Phoenix is terrific as the late emperor's son Commodus, an ambitious but weak heir. What I love about Gladiator is the vision it has and gives. You know it's purpose is to tell a story and portray is as a grand movie, and it does that well. It's downside is that it leaves you wanting more action, more violence that really isn't necessary. Nevertheless, Gladiator is paving the path for the nostalgic epic movies, which Hollywood seems to have forgotten.
GRADE: A-

Despite a few too many senseless scenes of nudity, sex, and psychedelic drug trips, Go was pretty entertaining. It's like Pulp Fiction, but the characters are about 10 years younger adn the content is more on the drugs and sex scene of Los Angeles and Las Vegas rather than on merely guns and guts. Go's cast consists of today's 20something movie stars: Katie Holmes, Scott Wolf, Jay Mohr, etc. They all have their own agendas and somehow everyone gets tangled up with everyone else. It's witty and corny at times, but not too bad if you like the mainstream celebrities.
GRADE: B

If you like loud, exciting movies with sappy romance, hints of comedy, and mediocre/predictable dialogue, Godzilla is your thing. I personally found the movie to be hilarious, pathetic, sad, and suspenseful. Anyways, radiation causes a lizard to balloon to dinosaur proportions. It heads to New York to lay eggs. Nick (Matthew Broderick) is a scientist who's asked by the military to help them kill Godzilla before it destroys the city. He gets kicked out of the operation when his ex-girlfriend steals military info on Godzilla, but Philippe (Jean Reno) whose a French secret agent asks Nick for help (since the French were the ones who caused the radiation in the first place). Well, before I give away anymore info, I suggest watching the movie when you have a lot of time (it's over 2 hours long). I enjoyed it, but it's a movie that should be seen only once.
GRADE: B

I'm not much of a James Bond fan, but I thought this movie was pretty exciting and up to 007 standards. I was yearning to watch some Mission Impossible reruns while watching this movie, which shows I'm not a 007 devotee. Sorry. Still, this movie was pretty comprehendable, funny in some parts...oh yeah, there's this girl that tries to kill people by wrapping her legs around them and squeezing them to death. She's a little psycho. But I think the guys will enjoy it.
GRADE: B

A fun movie, but only in the last hour or so. Gone in 60 Seconds stars Nicolas Cage as Memphis Raines, a retired car thief, who returns to stealing cars when his kid brother(Giovanni Ribisi) gets into trouble. Basically, Raines and his old crew have less than 4 days to steal 50 cars. Very exciting stuff, but the movie seems to have an unsatisfying dose of speedracing that's interrupted with too much dialogue. The movie gives the impression there's be a lot of impressive car scenes, and yes the car scenes are impressive, but there are not a lot. In short, the title gives way to a movie that sounds more exciting than it actually is.
GRADE: B-

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are wonderful as both screenwriters and actors. Damon stars as a young genius but a somewhat society-estranged-pariah. Affleck plays an enduring best friend. So, Damon's genius gets out and a MIT math professor wants everyone to know about this, but a run-in with the law, causes Damon to end up in therapy sessions with Robin Williams. They "discover" themselves and more about life. This movie is thought-provoking and a bit tearsome. I recommend it for pensive people.
GRADE: A

An English cast makes an English film about the "high and low" life in English countryside. So the highbrow people and their servants and valets join Sir William McCordle and his wife for a weekend of duck hunting. The movie is mostly about the difference between the "masters" and "servants" and though this movie could come off as extremely dull, it's rather amusing if you let it. Amid the boring layers of English dialogue is a story about gossip, sex, scandals, and murder. I wouldn't highly recommend it, but it is nominated for Best Picture.
GRADE: B

It starts off seeming like another played out WB show about college students, but it ends up being much more. Gossip stars three students (James Marsden, Norman Reedus, Lena Headey) who spread a rumor that turns out to be more than just a rumor. But unlike the rumor, this movie gets pretty boring. It doesn't have a lot of substance other than that you just want the movie to fast forward and unravel what's really a rumor and what's really the truth. Well, I guess that's a good enough to go see the movie. Eerie and dark, Gossip also stars Sharon Lawrence, Joshua Jackson, and Kate Hudson.
GRADE: B-

I didn't have very great "expectations" (excuse the pun)for this movie, so I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. "It's a nice movie" was my first reaction, and it didn't live up to all it's racy and gratuitiveness that the previews led me to expect. Ethan Hawke and Gwnyeth Paltrow are well cast in this loose adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel. Anne Bancroft adds comic relief. There's touches of romance, action, comedy, and other genres of movies in this movie so it makes for a nice movie overall.
GRADE: A-

Have you ever walked out of a movie feeling sad, happy, rejuvenated, and pitiful? Well, maybe, maybe not. But The Green Mile (directed by Shawshank Redemption's Frank Darabont) made me feel this way. It stars Tom Hanks as Paul Edgecomb, a prison guard, in charge of "the green mile," a stretch of green linoleum that leads to the electric chair. One day, John Coffey (Michael Duncan), a man with an enormous physique and an even more enormous heart and soul comes to the prison, having been accused of murdering two young girls. Paul and his co-workers witness miracles occur in the hands of John, and as much as they believe that John is innocent, they also believe John to be more than just another person. Okay, you really just got to see this movie. Interpret as you will, the message of the movie, but I found it to be a revelation (well, not really, since we should all be aware that this world is not peachy-keen) that this beautiful world is gosh-darn sinful. Evil is conquering love and well....you just got to hold onto any ounce of love and decency that is left. John is a man with lots of love, and he gives it freely and to all, despite his sentencing and imprisonment. It's hard not to cry out (and cry, you will when you see this movie) for John's innocence, and it's hard not to be happy for the miracles he performs. And the few words that come out of his mouth make you feel young and simple, but also ashamed and guilty of sin. I'd love to go on and on about this movie, but let's leave it as "Oscar-worthy" in all major categories.
GRADE: A