Miniscule Movie Monday

The Aura: Slow moving Argentinian thriller about an epileptic man obsessed with pulling off the perfect robbery who bluffs his way into a casino heist. A bit of a let down compared to the director's previous film Nine Queens, which is one of the bet con artist movies around; the glacial pace made this one a struggle to get through.

Reign Over Me: Well-done drama about a man (Adam Sandler) who fell to pieces after losing his whole family during 9/11, and his old college roommmate (Don Cheadle) who tries to help him pull himself together again. Some of the Singles seemed to feel that this was as glacial as i thought The Aura was, but I never once thought of the film as slow moving. I was enthralled with these characters and their lives from the get-go. I liked this one a lot.

The Departed: Oscar-winning drama about two Boston cops, one working as a dirty cop (Matt Damon) to help out a local crime boss (Jack Nicholson), and the other (Leonardo Dicaprio) working undercover to bring the crime boss down. A great cast and lots of twists and turns help propel this film. While I wish I'd seen it before all of the hype, I did like it quite a bit. I think Mark Wahlburg had a lot of fun in his role; I know Nicholson did. Wow, was he laying the crazy on thick. And, apparently, quite a bit of it was improvised to keep Damon and Dicaprio on their toes.