Don't worry, I'll be sticking my oar in with opinionated annoyances now and then, but I'm going to basically take a back seat. Let one of you do the driving!

2. "De-Lovely"--an odd Kevin Kline biopic on Cole Porter. It plays like a filmed theater production. Touches of Branaghs "play within a movie" a la "Henry V" mixed with "Moulon Rouge" but is too self-conscious, or perhaps self-absorbed is the right phrase. One could say that the film's style plays as an allegory of Porter himself. So, uneven dramatically but Kline is very good.

3. "I, Robot"--saw this in the theater and it improves on a second viewing. Lots of interesting touches and though it seems like it is more a Philip K. Dick story than an Asimov one, it still manages to be interesting to watch. I still prefer Proyas' "Dark City" to this but this shows the same kind of attention to atmosphere that may be a new hallmark of the new directors. Plus, Beltrami's score works excellently. Will Smith is good, but there is too much of the "smart" style character from Men In Black showing up at times.

4. "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" is the best of the 3 films to date. Williams' score sounds like he wants more projects as it has a bit of everything in it. The special effects in this film are remarkable individually and taken as a whole are fun, though the Aunt Marge scene is kind of unnecessary even if it is the plot device that gets us on our way. The young actors have really grown into their roles well, which is fun to see in miniature with the bonus trailers from each year. Otherwise the special features are a bit lame here.

5. "Sirocco"--this 1951 Bogie film has an interesting feel given the current political climate. Though it sometimes plays like a darker "Casablanca", there are some interesting moments. Lee J. Cobb gives the performance to watch in this one.

6. "A Patch of Blue" is a wonderful film with Goldsmith providing a score very similar to Bernstein's "To Kill A Mockingbird". The bead scene is a classic mix of dialogue, music, and visuals. Shelly Winter's character is so engaging you just want to scream at her and fight back. When you think about the issues this film raised at the time, it raises a whole new set of ones now. Do you think such a thing could happen in our day that a man would befriend a blind girl without it leading to some crime? Wow....

7. "Collateral" starts out very promising and then disappoints in the last 15 minutes. Still Jaimie Fox is really awesome in this film and brings it to a level that would have easily dropped this into B-picture realm. The scene with the jazz musician is probably the best one and the film is actually quite good up to that point. Afterwards it seems to follow standard formulas for the genre.

8. "Ambush" is an interesting film about the Finnish-Russian war that works. Though a bit overlong, you actually become engaged to the characters here as they ride their bicycles (?) across the country looking for Russian infiltrators.