Across the Universe

Across the Universe surprised and pleased me. Julie Taymor, creator of the visually stunning such as The Lion King, the Broadway production, and Frida, creates another very cool looking spectacle in Across the Universe. The movie is a musical, which I usually don't like, about and with Beatles's music. The characters are named Lucy, Jude, JoJo, and Prudence and the songs with their names enter in in some very cool and sometimes funny ways. There are also some groovy cameos from Bono, Eddie Izzard, and Joe Cocker. The movie flows from scene to scene moving along the story through music and dialogue. Basically, this movie is just plain fun and made me feel awed by the music of the Beatles and the amazing Julie Taymor.

Michael Clayton

I just saw Michael Clayton, a corrupt corporation meets smart lawyer movie, and have some mixed feelings. I guess I wanted to like it more than I did. I liked individual scenes, I liked listening to the smart dialogue and watching great acting: Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson, and George Clooney. I liked learning about the characters, Clayton's mixed up family, Crazy Arthur's intriguing loft. And I don't ever remember liking the acting of George Clooney so much. He exudes sadness from his doe eyes. So with all that I was surprised that quite frankly at times it bored me. Is my attention span shrinking or what? I like talky movies usually and this one is definitely dialogue filled. Who knows? Maybe, my expectations were too high going in.

Fracture

I saw Fracture with Ryan Gosling who plays a sleepy and sexy lawyer while Anthony Hopkins plays a creepy, smarmy killer. It's a murder mystery of sorts although you know who the killer is, the suspense lies in how they will pin the murder on him. Ryan Gosling, I have loved since Half Nelson and indeed he is not as captivating in this movie. Fracture is good but is more of an expanded Law and Order with a much better cast.