I agree with PeterK that Toni Collette’s character in About A Boy wasn’t very likable.

I do find her to be a solid actress and a complete chameleon in her appearance. I read an
interview by her where she said that people still don’t recognize her. I understand that.
When I first saw her in Muriel’s Wedding, I really thought she was unattractive. I didn’t
realize that she was the same actress who played the mother in The Sixth Sense. Great
performance in that movie by a rather attractive woman. She plays the other woman in
Changing Lanes and is again a rather attractive blonde. She is down right homely in
About a Boy. A true chameleon.

I saw Insomnia and really enjoyed the fine performances by all three stars. This is
a psychological thriller, NOT an action movie. My daughter was rather bored, but I
was entertained. Pacino plays an intriguing and flawed human being. Hilary Swank
does a fine job as a novice cop who slowly realizes that her hero isn’t all that
heroic. One scene will really leave you pondering about intentional action versus
accidental action. This movie utilizes the setting as almost a living character.

First off, it's just extremely funny. And the humor is of a kind that is very difficult to pull off, it had to be written and executed just right to work and it was.

Second, it pulls off a very difficult balancing act. The characters in this film are more like the Addams family than a real family. They aren't quite real, they are quirky oddballs. And yet, despite their extreme outlandishness, they all have identifiable human problems and so beneath the surface craziness there is a real emotion and heart between people to be found in the film.

Like Rushmore, this is a film that champions the odd, nerdy, genius outsiders over all. The filmmakers know what problems they have navigating in the world, but since they try every tactic they have and are irrepressible, they are ultimately heroic.

Caught Rope again. Liked it the first time I saw it but didn't care as much for it this screening. I like the long take, but it feels like you're watching a play rather than "reality". I love how the skyline goes from day to night over the course of the film--that's probably the neatest thing in the movie. Stewart is actually second-fiddle to the two killers who are the real stars. But in the end, I don't like anybody up on screen and am glad for the whole thing to be over. Just as the guests at the party find the whole thing a bit strange and leave early, I was inclined to high-tail it out of this film myself.

More old TV: Caught 2 episodes of The Untouchables and 2 episodes of Mission: Impossible.

The construction of The Untouchables episodes, using real people and fictional people, narrating things to an exact date and time, really makes it feel like you're watching history instead of fiction. And it's interesting to see how the Untouchables will solve the conflict set up in the first half of the episode.

Soylent Green? Another one of those damned Richard Fleischer films. I can understand the cult following it must have, but come on, it was extreme without going to the extreme. This thing was made after Kubrick's 2001 and... and... I don't know why I draw the comparison. The film had a tough job selling us the setup, and in the end, the "shocker" was nothing more than a stage for Heston to deliver a great movie quote. He's good at it, despite the lackluster flick. Finally, it would be wrong of me not to mention Edward G. Robinson's role. It was his last film, and he was great. To me, the strangest part about the film was to see a classic character from the film noir 40s now old and frail... in a "future" that looks like 1972. The film seems to be best made as a 30 minute short... you know, one of those Twilight Zone episodes. That would have been cool. Oh, and Lou... I think you would like the future of Soylent Green. That is, if you had money. The "furniture" is something else!

I'm still blown away by the images. For me, it didn't even have to be in 3D, but it made it all the more amazing. For almost an hour, I was in space.

The 3D effect virtually( )) allowed you to experience a wide variety of experiences that only a few humans have. The people I went with thought is was really funny at the beginning, when I actually tensed up and jumped in my seat. What was on the screen at the time was a view of the top of the Space Station looking all the way down past the Shuttle with the small Earth in the background. It was so realistic I experienced a second of vertigo.

Later, when they were showing a meal onboard the station, an orange M&M got loose and floated right towards the camera. Without thinking, I raised my hand to grab the candy as it came right at me. That also elicited a laugh, and I saw everyone jump a second later when an orange came sailing straight for us.

A great film, in my humble honest opinion. I only hope that the music - by Mickey Erbe & Maribeth Solomon - will be available.

Mason is a school teacher, poor, dull, but married to a beautiful woman and he has a nice son. He contracts a rare disease and is put on a drug whose side effects cause delusions of grandeur. Under the effects of the drug, Mason becomes the ultimate Dad from Hell, an increasingly tyrannical psycho who eventually threatens his wife and son's lives.

As much as I love Ray and his use of the wide screen, I can't say this film comes off as serious today as it was originally intended. Still, it has some very good things in it. It really gets across the idea that once the disease takes over, Mason no longer belongs to himself, he's lost control to both what is happening in his body and the actions and lingo of the doctors around him. And the film succeeds in linking Mason's insanity with strong proto-fascist sentiments about stern educational practices. The two resulting sequences where Mason puts these ideas into practice and grills his son in catching a football pass and working out a math problem are simply horrific.

The film comes across as a skeptical commentary on post-war solutions to modern problems. The wonder drugs and the modern educational ideas destroy the humanity of the people they are meant to advance.

But there is an even darker vision here. The drugs are to blame, but what erupts from their use is the Repressed. Mason's inflated ego lords against all the sacred cows of Church, Home, School, Class, etc. This is what Mason's cultured, nice guy facade is holding back, and it's the thing underlying people that modern science and education might unleash.

Gae

Lou, loved that old THRILLER series. Some episodes were very creepy. One I remember had a young William Shatner up against the Grim Reaper in a big house. Scary as hell when I was younger. I think that that episode had music credited to Mort Stevens, although I seem to recall that I thought it was Goldsmithian - either because it used tracked Goldsmith music or because it was Stevens writing in the Goldsmith style.