I really hated the last two Woody Allen movies I saw in the theater. In fact, after we saw Anything Else, Juliette and I decided that was it, we weren't going to see any more Woody Allen movies. So when we heard about Match Point we were a little skeptical, despite the overwhelmingly good reviews it was getting. We were so wrong. It was easily one of the best films we've seen over the past year. The writing was excellent, the locations were beautiful, and the acting was, for the most part, brilliant. The story managed some of the most incredible tension I've ever seen in a movie and the resolution leaves you both satisfied and uncomfortable. Probably the lowest point of the film is Scarlett Johansen's acting, but even so this is probably her best work. In fact, I'm not even sure that the relative shallowness of her performance—relative to the other actors, that is—wasn't on purpose, because it works pretty well for the character. I wouldn't have thought I'd have so many good things to say about a movie by Woody Allen but this one was just amazing.

Viewed: 2006-02-11 | Released: 2005-12-27 | Score: A

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The 2006 update of The Pink Panther has been receiving generally bad reviews. This review will not break that streak. I think part of the problem for me was that I had reasonably high expectations based on the fact that I thought Steve Martin looked really funny in the previews. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie was only OK. In fact, the funniest part of the movie wasn't even Martin, it was Jean Reno. Reno's deadpan performance as Clouseau's sidekick, Ponton, was the highlight of the film, for me. And the low point? That would be Beyoncé. I honestly cannot figure out why she keeps getting cast in movies. Sure, she's good-looking, but not enough that it makes up for being completely terrible at acting.

Viewed: 2006-02-10 | Released: 2006-02-09 | Score: C

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Once, back in high school, my stepdad and I had a conversation about great American presidents. Like a lot of people, he thought quite a bit more of Thomas Jefferson than George Washington—in his words, Washington was "just a general." As much sense as that appraisal made at the time, it was ultimately unsatisfying because there must have been some reason that Washington was the first president instead of Jefferson, or other eminent politicians of the time like Madison or Adams. In fact, it is exactly this problem that is the central question of His Excellency. I found it to be an excellent read—informative and engaging while also being easy to absorb. Separating the man from the mythology that has grown up around him over the past two centuries is no mean feat, and Ellis does a good job of presenting him as a human figure. In addition to the subject of the book, I also found it interesting to see the biases that different historians have. Ellis presents Jefferson and John Adams and their respective parties in a very different light from the way Stephen Ambrose portrays them in Undaunted Courage and To America. Clearly, one writer can never give you a complete picture, but I'm starting to get to the point where I feel that the breadth of my reading is giving me a wide enough reference to read with a more critical eye.

Started: 2006-01-30 | Finished: 2006-02-07

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The eighth Hornblower book is a bit different from the others in that almost none of the story takes place on a ship. The book opens with Hornblower and his men in a French prison, and the bulk of the novel is concerned with his escape and his travels home. There's less action, but it turns out that instead of making the book boring this allows for a more character-driven story. I think by the end of Flying Colours I had a much clearer picture of Horatio Hornblower, the man, than ever before. I find that I feel toward him much the same way as one of the characters in this book—I can't help liking him, despite the fact that he's not very likeable. Three books are left and I'm looking forward to them.

Started: 2006-01-28 | Finished: 2006-01-29

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In case you haven't heard of it, The Matador is a comedy about a professional assassin, played by Pierce Brosnan, who gets burned out on his job and befriends a regular guy, played by Greg Kinnear, who he meets in a hotel bar in Mexico City. It's not being marketed very heavily so you may not have heard of it—Juliette and I only heard about it when Pierce Brosnan was nominated for a Golden Globe. It's a rather odd film. These days, comedies tend to beat you over the head with the humor but this one is quite a bit more subtle; the humor mostly springs from the ridiculousness of the situations, but the film never goes over the top. I liked it, and not just because it made me laugh—which it did—or because the actors did a good job—which they did. It was also really nice to see a movie that wasn't just the same old formula all over again. As Juliette pointed out about halfway through the film, it was really difficult to predict where the movie was going and I found that to be a welcome change of pace.

Viewed: 2006-01-27 | Released: 2005-12-29 | Score: A

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I'm feeling a little irritated with this book right now because I had intended on reading a biography of George Washington next, but because Ship of the Line ends with a cliffhanger I had to leave my copy of His Excellency on my nightstand and continue on with the next Hornblower novel. This one wasn't as good as the previous book, Beat to Quarters, but it managed to drag me in enough that I just had to know how things turned out after the events in the final scene.

Started: 2006-01-16 | Finished: 2006-01-28

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Gabriel García Márquez is a bit of an enigma to me. He's one of my favorite writers, but I end up loving his stories without really knowing why. There's an easy comparison between this book and Nabokov's Lolita: both of them are about an older man who obsesses over and falls in love with an adolescent girl. But, of course, this book's Argentinian setting makes it quite different in important ways; there's an entirely different sensibility to the characters. And while the relationship between the narrator and his Delgadina is certainly central to the plot, I'm not sure the story is really about that. It's much more about love than obsession or perversion, which also separates it from Nabokov's story. And when you get down to it, I think the story is much more about old age and nostalgia than it is about sex. Or maybe I'm just talking out of my ass. Whatever the book is truly commenting on, if anything, the prose is so wonderful that I almost don't care if I don't understand it.

Started: 2006-01-10 | Finished: 2006-01-11

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My first experience with The Producers was on Saturday, May 31, 2003, when Juliette and I saw Jason Alexander and Martin Short in the Los Angeles production at the Pantages Theatre. I think I can honestly say I've never laughed harder at any other play. It's too bad that I saw it before I saw the 1968 film; the original suffered in comparison—to me, at least. We were excited to see the new film version of the musical, but I'm not sure why—after loving the stage version so much, how could a movie hope to live up to it? And, really, it didn't. There wasn't the same energy to the movie as on stage and, in fact, a fair amount of the production was too theatrical and didn't come off well on screen. To top it off, Uma Thurman just wasn't right for the part. She looked good enough, sure, but she didn't have the voice or dancing talent to carry the role. I think the film's producers wanted to bring some extra star power to the movie, but they ended up kind of killing some of my favorite scenes from the stage musical. Still, the rest of the cast was pretty good. I think I preferred Martin Short to Matthew Broderick, but Nathan Lane was excellent. And I particularly liked Roger Bart as Carmen Ghia. Surprisingly, I even liked Will Ferrell—for once, his overwrought screeching was right for the part. If you have the chance to see The Producers on stage you should definitely take it. If not, I'd say that, even though this version had its faults, the source material is good enough to make the movie worthwhile.

Viewed: 2006-01-06 | Released: 2005-12-15 | Score: B

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I wasn't really all that interested in seeing this one, but Juliette and I felt like seeing a movie with her sibs and this was the least uninteresting of the lot. It did get a few laughs out of me, but mostly it was pretty dumb. On the positive side, the acting talent that Jim Carrey discovered during The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind still seems to be present—he hammed it up in his usual style for most of the movie, but during the climactic scene he pulled out a pretty decent monologue.

Viewed: 2006-01-03 | Released: 2005-12-20 | Score: D

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I first saw Army of Darkness in the 11th grade and I've been a fan of Bruce Campbell ever since. There's just something about his cocky, campy sense of humor that I really enjoy watching. And, as it turns out, I enjoy reading it, too. His writing style has this unusual combination of swagger and self-deprecation that made for a really fun read. I will say, though, that if you're not a fan, I don't think this book has much to offer you.

Started: 2005-12-01 | Finished: 2005-12-25

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