Jan H.'s Reviews

I know this movie was too slow paced for many folks but it felt right to me, it felt like it was trying to match the slowness of the last part of Jesse James' life. It's a beautiful movie with close attention to period details. Casey Affleck, who plays Robert Ford, is amazing. I liked the whole cast except for Brad Pitt who sometimes seemed to really inhabit his character and other times just seemed to be chewing up the scenery.
Review Date: 1/22/2010

This was actually three short movies about love, longing, and lust by three very different directors. I originally wanted it for Wong Kar-wai's short which was just amazing but I found Soderbergh's also very intriguing and well done. Antonioni's short, however, did nothing for me. He needed a longer format so he could flesh his characters and better connect the vatious threads. Still, I highly recommend this DVD = the first 2 thirds are well worth it.
Review Date: 1/30/2010

A darkly funny tale of a young man's quest to find his much older half-brother to let him know their mother has died. He finds much more along the way. Not terribly realistic but well made and enjoyable to watch.
Review Date: 1/9/2010

I resisted watching the movie because I thought it was over-hyped and couldn't possbly be any good. But I ended up loving it. I can certainly understand why it doesn't work for everyone but for me the acting and the script (and yes, the soundtrack too - I loved those songs) all worked together very well.
Review Date: 1/27/2010

This movie didn't work for me at all. The main characters weren't particularly interesting or sympatheic and the events seemed very unlikely. I normally love anything with Emma Thompson in it but even she couldn't save this movie for me.
Review Date: 1/30/2010

As always the Nature series does not disappoint. There are two hour long episodes on this disk and both are great. My one caveat would be that they give too much time to Raymond Coppinger and his theories of the evolution of wolves to dogs and just gloss over the competing mDNA evidence. But, at the time this show was made Coppinger's theories were all the rage so it's not surprising the show focuses on them. Personally, as a total dog evolution geek, the footage of the Belyaev foxes was the very best part of the whole thing. I would love a couple hours just on that study.
Review Date: 1/7/2010

I ordered this movie because I thought Hideaki Ito was cute in "Sukiyaki Western Django" so I didn't come to it with any great expectations or knowledge of the manga it is based on. However, I thought it was pretty good and I didn't need to know the manga story to follow this one. I suspect those who love super action samurai movies with lots of slashing swords and flying daggers will be a bit disappointed - there's plenty of that stuff but it's not all action. There's an actual plot and good acting in between the action.
Review Date: 1/6/2010

This was an incredibly powerful film. Ejiofor plays a man who was tortured during the Apartheid years and comes before the "Truth and Reconcilliation" committee many years later in an effort to find out what happened to a friend of his seized and tortured at the same time he was. The "trial" and the flashbacks to the past create a vivid picture of how both blacks and whites were profoundly effected by the Apartheid regime and South Africa's efforts to put those years behind it.

I have read reviews on other sites that complained about Swank, an American, and Ejiofor, a Brit, playing South Africans rather than having South Africans in the lead parts and while I think it would have been nice to have South Africans play South Africans I also can't complain about the job Swank and especially Ejiofor did. Is the film perfect - no, not at all, but it tells a tale too easily overlooked and forgotten. At least with Swank and Ejiofor in the lead parts perhaps more Americans will watch it and that would be a very good thing.
Review Date: 1/29/2010

I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. It's a silly action flick with an outrageous premise (a civil war ship lost in the Sahara desert? Yeah, right!) but it worked. There were so many unrelated threads that were pulled together very entertainingly. I recommend this to anyone who just wants a couple hours of fun and action.
Review Date: 1/27/2010

I gave this one 5 stars. For me this movie is just about perfect entertainment. There's action, but it's part of the plot. The plot is original and within a science fiction world, believable. The cast is perfect for their parts - this was before Schwarzenegger was a BIG name. And it has some memorable lines in it, too.
Review Date: 1/11/2010

I'm going to second what the other reviewer said - this is a very good "coming-of-age" movie with an outstanding cast. It's a pity this movie has been so overlooked because it is a real gem.
Review Date: 1/27/2010

I loved loved loved the production values of this series, the clever details, the music (fantastic opeing song!), the general look and feel. And the supporting cast is outstanding, just amazing outstanding. But, as with the book (I only read the first one) I just didn't much like Sookie at all and while I generally Anna Paquin just fine she sure didn't bring anything to Sookie that helped at all. If anything I liked Sookie *less* after watching the show.

But fortunately Sookie doesn't get all that much screen time and her story is not the only part of this otherwise great show. I'll be watching out for Season two.
Review Date: 1/7/2010

This was a realistic and sad, but beautifully told, story of one young woman's search for the American dream. Michelle Williams was out-standing as Wendy. This is not your typical Hollywood fare - it is slow paced and involves no car chases, sex, or bathroom humour. It is just a well observed glimpse into what is unfortunately an all too real world of folks just getting by.
Review Date: 1/8/2010

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