Screen Play
by the Shadow Critics

Lucky Number SLevin – Bruce Willis has had better characters as a hit man. Had he not killed you with an array of weapons or moves, he could have easily bored his victims to death. Also, there have been less predictable plots. The baseball scene in the movie was disturbing – I do not know what the director and writer were thinking or not thinking but it does not work into the plot well. That said, the love interest (Lucy Liu) is incredible and the dialogue between her and Josh Hartnett is worth the price of admission. The way the plot finally comes together makes this flick time well spent.

The Inside Man – Some moviegoers might come out wondering who the title refers to – is it Denzel Washington’s character of a washed-up cop or Jodi Foster’s role of a fixer for the problem-plagued rich (whom she is only too happy to relieve of their money), or is it perhaps the obvious Clive Owens as the bank robber who plans the perfect bank job. The plot and movie work along at a good pace, and there is definitely entertainment in the movie. It is a movie which I was happy to pay the full price of admission.

Scary Movie 4 – Thinking it would be good for at least one laugh, I was not disappointed. I had my one laugh at the spoof of Brokeback Mountain but received little else. The rest of the movie was well packed with far too much spoof, and too little entertainment. This is a movie I would have liked to go back and argue over the ticket price, but by the end of this movie, I was happier to leave the theatre and at least do something with the rest of my evening.

Bloodrayne – Bloodrayne is the half-vampire, half-human daughter of a vampire lord played by Ben Kingsley. Her battle scenes at times look as if they would reach Quentin’s standards in movies like Kill Bill, but in the end, the editing was too choppy, leaving one feeling like you were at some student film festival. The direction was terrible in this movie. You walk away knowing why the Academy Awards give out Oscars for directors; it is only by seeing the not-so-talented ones that we really appreciate the ones who take the time to make a good movie.

Tsotsi – For those who like foreign pictures, the best picture of the past year was this story of a young street kid living in the ghettos of South Africa. He is one of the millions of people who were tribal but have no more land because of development so live in shacks on the outskirts of the city. He is tough, and you quickly learn there is no difference to him whether you are his victim or a friend: he has equal brutality for both. This all changes when he steals a car with a baby in the back – he decides he wants to protect the baby and raise it better than he was. If you do not mind subtitles, and a movie more set on character development, then this is not a bad way to spend a couple of hours. If you are an action or special-effects junkie, this is not your ride.