Movie Micro-Reviews: Edition 44

As expected, we saw some movies over the break!

Blind Side (The)	73	It’s better than you think it will be, and it has much less to do with football than family.
Snow Walker (The)	65	Stranded in the wilderness of the Northwest Territories, how could you survive? Worth the watching. A good story, and believeable.
Cell (The)	60	Interesting idea, and some cool images, but in the end, too many disturbing images wrenched me out of the movie, and might well give me bad dreams. Deranged serial killers are not my cup of tea.
Dark Knight	95	Originally reviewed in Edition 21. A triumph! Joker was maniacal and diabolical. Harvey spent long enough as a good guy that we felt bad for his transformation. Bale was able to be Batman, and Batman was the hero Gotham really needed. So many things were perfect there’s one word that applies: Brilliant!
Rent	78 84	Originally reviewed in Edition 13 (a). I’ve changed its rating, over time. And now it’s on blu-ray! This has grown on me more as I’ve seen it more. The sticking points below have faded. Here’s what I wrote initially: Loved the story. Loved the characters. Loved the primary songs. So what was wrong? Well, if you’re going to do a rock opera, there should be no un-sung dialog. However, this was NOT a rock opera, and I agree with that choice. So why was there so much singing of dialog? Most of the Mimi/Roger relationship was sung, but most of it was not a song – just sung dialog. Considering that a main plot point was that Roger could not write a song, it seemed incongruous. Still, “525,600 Minutes” is excellent, and I had never heard “La Vie Boheme” and it was fantastic. Mark, Angel, and Maureen are the best characters. I like Mimi/Roger more now. And the other songs are great.
Vantage Point	67	Interesting way to tell a mystery story – from so many points of view. It worked pretty well. Recommended.
District 9	73	This was not what I expected. Could we really see humans treat aliens like this? Yes, we could. Another “big business is the bad guy” sci-fi movie? OK, but also, humanity isn’t so humane – and that’s even more important.