Movie Mon. - Note to Self: Next Time, Read Movie Synopsis More Carefully

Slow movie watching week, due to Wicked, State Fair, and watching disc 1 of Profit. Read on for some reviews, and some new DVDs that sound interesting.


Milwaukee, Minnesota: Indie film about a well-off man with mental disabilities named Albert(Troy Garity, the white barber in Barbershop) who is the target of dueling con artists after his domineering mother is slain in a hit-and-run. Randy Quaid plays the con man claiming to be Albert's dad, while Hank Harris (Emory Dick on Popular) and Alison Folland (one of Nicole Kidman's protégés in To Die For) play a brother and sister team hoping to play on his sympathies. Garity give an excellent understated performance, and Folland is completely unrecognizable to someone who only knows her from To Die For. Darker than I expected, but I enjoyed it.

Layer Cake: British film about a drug dealer trying to get out of the business, only to get called in by the big boss who wants him to do him a couple of favors, neither of which turns out well. Stars Daniel Craig, who has just signed on to be the next James Bond, and Colm "Chief O'Brien" Meany, who's always been one of my favorites. Directorial debut of a producer of Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch who took over when Guy Ritchie, the director of those two films, had to back out. Shares a bit of the same sensibility of those two films, but the comedic aspect, while present, is much subtler. Lots of twists and turns in this one, and none of them feel like twists for twists' sake . . . well, except maybe the last one, but it sure makes for a memorable ending.

Eternal: You ever rent a movie that you think is going to be one thing and then turns out to be something else? Like, say, you think you're renting a horror film, and about 9 minutes in you realize that it's actually borderline softcore pron? Yeah, me neither. Moving along . . .

NEW DVD RELEASES THAT HAVE CAUGHT ME INTEREST FOR TUESDAY, OCT. 25

House of Wax: Recent remake which will be worth viewing just to watch Paris Hilton's death scene.

Gus Van Sant's Last Days: A fictionalized account of the final days of Kurt Cobain.

Melinda and Melinda: The latest Woody Allen film. Allen's stuff is pretty hit or miss for me, but when he's on, he's great. Here's hoping he's on with this one.

Nothing: Indie comedy from director of Cube about a couple of guys who wish the world away, and suddenly find themselves in a vast expanse of white-tinged nothingness. Sounds odd enough to hold my interest, maybe.

American Gothic: Complete Series: I only got to see the first couple of eps of this back when it was on since it was on during the early college years, when I watched no TV other than MTV. Glad I'll finally get the chance to see the rest.

Point Pleasant: Complete Series: A series that showed a bit of promise (the ep where the bad guy made the prudish woman operate under a compulsion to tell the absolute truth was great), but generally drowned in its own melodrama, and so was yanked with episodes unaired. Still, I was into it enough to want to see how the first story arc ends.