I meant ladybug (sorry), which somehow seems sillier- she mentions that ladybugs give her strength, and then a ladybug comes a the end, giving her the confidence to whoop Stephen Lang. Very Screenwriting 101, anyhow.

I think the reason he was cast in Looper is that he's a pretty easy board- just put Bruce Willis on his face, don't give him an accent, don't require something exhaustive out of him, he can be a close approximation.

Darned if I'm not excited for Nocturama now; I've been hearing good things from just about every sector, and it sounds like it's more about the aughts than other films this year. We've had an odd lack of great prescient, timely films in the twenty-first century.

I watched Howard Hawk's To Have and Have Not, starring Bogie and Bacall- it's a completely sumptuous ode to making the best of a bad situation, and, in an egregiously blasphemous moment, I must admit I like it better than Casablanca and The Big Sleep (both terrific films, note). It's maybe my favorite Hawks film I've…

George Cukor? Joan Crawford? All-female cast of the thousands? Cattiness? Hadn't ever heard of this before, but I'm quite up for this 'un!
How does the rest of the film hold up besides this scene (which was just about the best thing ever)?

Except that Showgirls has been claimed by the art cinema side, presently. Who knew that would happen?

Thanks for the tip, Mr. Stevens!

Bleh. Would've preferred a stop motion adaptation of the book- most of this is just emotionally manipulative, one dimensional Pixar knock-off stuff.

Smiley face scars from shrapnel? I mean, this movie had Harvey Dent get burnt on exactly half of his face, which is literally impossible, but I think smiley scars from shrapnel might be a bit too ludicrous.
Also, maybe I just don't want an Iraq allegory mussing up a generally good superhero opera; that type of stuff…

This would actually be the third remake of the book. There was also a 1974 Lucille Ball vehicle based on the musical adaptation of the novel, simply titled Mame. It was, to say the least, much less successful than the Russell version, earning half its cost, and all because they passed over national treasure Angela…

Wait, there are two young Barack movies being released this year, one set during college and one set during grad school? I know the man is charismatic, but this is the last place I'd have looked for an Olympus Has Fallen / White House Down situation.

I agree about a lot of the last third being redundant, but I thought that the ending was quite poignant. Of course, I would prefer if the film had maintained a tighter, overarching focus on just one of the bits, like romancing the sociopath.

I saw The Red Shoes for the first time when I was eight, on a huge screen. One literally stops breathing for the whole of the dance sequence.

Good list! The Witch and Midnight Special are likely to make my top ten of the year, as they both got high-for-me grades (B+). My favorite theater rereleases were Jaws, Blue Velvet, Psycho, and Singin' in the Rain, On the Waterfront, and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (in that order, all high to low A- grades).

Darn, everyone was great in that movie, including her- everybody sold the film even at its most "this could look silly" moments. I hadn't seen The Office (U.K.) before The VVitch (blind-spot now corrected), and Ralph Ineson seems to have a lot of range, he's magnificent there. And I'm looking forward to Anya…

The more art-house variety stuff has been decent for the beginning of the year- and it will presumably pick up a bit later in the year, when all of those movies get released. Agreed that the mainstream blockbusters have been poor- no surprises like Edge of Tomorrow or John Wick to spice up the lackluster fair.

Oh, I've been excited about that one- looks overwhelmingly pleasant (and I mean that in a complementary sense).

Yeah, I cracked up when I saw that! Turns out, people thought it was a real pill, resulting in frequent calls to the studio about where to find it. He ended up reusing the cameo for another one-set film, Rope. It's his profile with Reducto on a bulletin through one of the windows.

I wanted that entire movie to be Collin Farrell trying to woo the emotionless woman. Certainly the best part of movie, I was on the floor.

Didn't go to the movie theater, as the summer fare seems to be rather dire. I saw Hawk's The Big Sleep and Hitchcock's Lifeboat, which were brilliant and quite a lot of fun, respectively. Oh, for a socially liberal non-wartime 1940s!
Is the new Star Trek worth watching? I do like some Karl Urban.
EDIT: Forgot that I saw…