Crutch's Recent Movie Reviews

I rented some movies this weekend, thanks to our credit card rewards program! Here are my mini-reviews:

1. Kung-Fu Panda - Andrew and Diane assured me that I would laugh uncontrollably at this movie, but I found it pretty average. There were a few laughs, the funniest sequence is when the panda is fighting his "mentor" for a dumpling (food). All in all, though, I was a bit disappointed. I would give it 2/5 stars.

2. Doubt - again, this movie had potential - I love religiously themed movies! - but this one slipped into political correctness, and left too many loose ends. Meryl Streep was creepily excellent as the accusatory Sister Aloysius, and ole Philip Seymour Hoffman was great as the accused Father Brendan Flynn. I would give it 2/5 stars.

3. The Day the Earth Stood Still - the Keanu Reeves propaganda piece about global warming and environmentalism. This is a remake of the old 1951 movie, but I felt I was being preached at for most of the film. Even the gorgeous Jennifer Connelly was not on her best game. I give it 2/5 stars.

4. The Reader - the new Kate Winslet Holocaust movie. Of the lot I saw this weekend, this one was the best. We saw much more of ole Kate naked than I would have preferred, so be ready for that (I didn't realize it was rated R, and I thought the affair played a more minor role in the film). The first third of the movie is the affair she has with a 16 year old boy. There were some tender moments between them. A subplot of the movie is the negative effects that such an intimate relationship has on a young man. The film raises some interesting moral questions about the law and the Holocaust. I give it 3/5 stars.