Nurse Betty

Good stuff here. Enjoy the almost always great Renée Zellweger as the titular confused lady; plus she gets strong support from the rest of the cast, in particular  Chris Rock and Morgan Freeman, who are a hoot as a pair of father-son, yin-yang hitmen.

Fast Food Nation

I agree with this movie's principles, but I think there are some big mistakes here. Throughout the running time, I kept feeling that a fictionalized treatment of the muckracking bestseller was the wrong approach; a documentary would have worked a lot better (though telling that much truth probably would have led to substantial lawsuits). Plus, the storyline here takes the problems with the fast food industry and externalizes them too much; most people watching this film aren't interested in what happens to poor Mexicans--their question is, "How does this affect me?" Again, I applaud the politics, but I think the heart of this matter, as shown here, will be too distant for most viewers.

Little Miss Sunshine

I guess a curmudgeon might agree that this movie isn't all that, like it was claimed to be upon its theatrical release. But it is hard to resist its cute, sweet, funny charm. In an ocean of shit, such as comes out of Hollywood every year, it makes sense to applaud a movie that's this together. Again, it's nothing supreme, but well worth your time and your laughs.

Stuck On You

Those Farrelly brothers--they're quite the enigma, aren't they? They've made a couple of the funniest movies of the last decade or so (There's Something About Mary and the wildly under appreciated Kingpin), but apparently, "funny" is not really their thing. At least judging by some recent outings. Here's a case in point. It was "sold" as a comedy, and there are certainly some funny moments, good gags, humor-laden premise, etc. But then again, they seem to be more interested in making a point about people and what makes them who they are. The boys deserve credit for trying, but they didn't completely pull it off. Maybe they'll nail it with the next try.

Auto Focus

A word of advice: if you're having the Pope over for the evening, you might want to bypass screening this one after dinner. The movie certainly has its share of nakedness, but it's not as sleazy as you might think; it's certainly not as stimulating as one would anticipate. I can't say if Greg Kinnear really captures Bob Crane--I was never a Hogan's Heroes fan--but the performances are well done and believable. The movie just never rises to any particular heights.

The Gift

A run-of-the-mill mystery thriller, with a little horror thrown in. Not as good as A Simple Plan, the other Sam Raimi-Billy Bob Thornton collaboration (in this case, B.B. merely wrote the thing). It does reaffirm my position that I will never move to the "deep" South.