Black Book, The (contains spoilers)

Excellent film. Without any sentimentality this film depicts the crushing brutality of life in the occupied Netherlands late in the Second World War. The plot involves a conspiricy between a pair of Dutch men and a German officer to target the wealthiest Jewish people still living (underground) in the Netherlands. The Dutch men convince the Jews that for a price they will transport them to liberated Belgium. The Jews, carrying all their valuables, (cash, gold and jewelry) are led onto a barge that is supposed to ferry them to safety across the border. But there is a German partol boat waiting downstream for them and they are slaughtered on the deck of the barge. The Germans loot the bodies but our heroine escapes by diving into the canal.

The director does so many things right. The pace is perfect and someone did a great job at editing. Violent events pile up against one another as a terrible momentum builds. There is only a handful of moments when any of the characters has time to reflect on their situation before some new, unanticipated disaster crashes in.

This film has a twisty, complex, yet readily followed plot. It shows how compicated occupying a foreign nation is. It shows how easily the most committed, dedicated partisan could be framed as a traitor. You would expect life in the resistance to be dangerous, but you would not expect this kind of treachery from your own comrades. If you were a resistance fighter you would never expect to find a loyal ally in the German army yet I'm sure these events transpired in a fashion similar to this dramatization. You never feel the filmakers have embelished.

I give this pic nine solid gold stars. This story could not have been told this well by anyone in Hollywood.

The Hunting Party

Wow. This movie is truly terrible. I have nothing good to say about it. If you're on a long flight and you can't fall asleep and The Hunting Party is playing, read and then re-read the airline's crappy magazine rather than waste 104 minutes of your life watching this dreck. Run away! Run away!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455782/

Eastern Promises

Why did I bother? It held so little promise. LOL.

But seriously, what a piece of crap. Who did they make this movie for? The trailers made it look like some kind of intrigue/crime/thriller but it's really a chick flick dressed up as a crime story. Bleh.
Skip it unless you need to score points with your significant female other. Watch it with her, or watch nothing at all.

A Mighty Heart

Solid effort. It is neither jingoistic nor sentimental. Somehow it feels suspenseful even when you know how it's going to end. The only part that was a little hard to swallow was Angelina Jolie as Perl's wife. Don't get me wrong; Jolie's performance was superb. She's just too sexy for this role.

I can't stop wondering why Pearl was so honest about his Jewish background when dealing with the jihadists. In one scene he is asked if he is Christian. He says no, and -voluntarily- says his family is Jewish but not religious. Something tells me that was what sealed his fate. What was he thinking?

Overall a 7.5 rating is deserved.

A footnote: Daniel Perl worked for the North Adams Transcript and the Berkshire Eagle, according to the Wikipedia page on him.

the killing of a chinese bookie

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074749/

I think David Lynch must have been a Cassevettes fan.

"A Peruvian shepard named Bruno
said this about love I do know
a woman is fine; a sheep is divine
but a llama is numero uno."

Rescue Dawn

Excellent film. I wish I'd seen it in a theatre.

Comet Holmes (not a movie)

Wow. Was it ever bright. I thought it might have been the Intnl Space Station. Huge oblong glowing object in the sky. I can only imagine how bright it looked from the middle of the Pacific or New Mexico. It was/is the brightest thing I have ever seen in the night sky aside from the moon.

"Comet Holmes is seen among the stars of the constellation Perseus in the North-Eastern sky just after midnight on Monday, Nov. 5, 2007. The comet's gas cloud continues to expand over the last 10 days after a sudden eruption and is still visible with the unaided eye." (AP Photo/Dr. Scott M. Lieberman)