Any reviews of Painted Veil? (Edward Norton is rather remarkable, after all...). Julie Krueger thinking of escaping to the pure escapism of funny Dancing Feet. Alternatively, Pursuit of Happyness is likely a feel-good flick, though apparently at least loosely based on a true story of will, persistence, and imagination. On the other hand, The Devil Wears Prada is tempting simply because I adore Streep. On the other other hand, The Good German sounds seriously good or if I wish to be truly depressed and brought down to earth (sic), perhaps An Inconvenient Truth. Maybe I'll just settle for Dream Girls or the other fluff dance-flick that's making the popular rounds. I figure as long as I avoid Rocky like the plague I can't go too wrong. ========Original Message======== Subj: [lit-ideas] Movies: Bond and Little Miss Sunshine Date: 12/18/2006 8:32:56 P.M. Central Standard Time From: _andreas@xxxxxxxxxxxx (mailto:andreas@xxxxxxxxxxx) To: _lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (mailto:lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx) Sent on: How about some movie reviews? I went to see Casino Royale (the new Bond movie) last night. The previous 6-10 Bond movies were pretty silly. They were mostly a marketing vehicle. The new Bond has Daniel Craig (he was in "Layer Cake", a very good Brit gangster movie). The film moves fast; you have to pay attention. The action is credible (instead of the cartoon violence of most Hollywood movies). The film style is also very fresh and raw. The movie is very watchable and probably the best thing in 2006 (which was not a good year for movies). I noticed influences from the web. The opening titles are clearly inspired by Flash. The opening chase scene is also from YouTube's videos of Russian and Chinese kids jumping around, such as the well-known video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2kJZOfq7zk And there's lots of PDAs, emails, SMS, web, and so on that is just part of the movie. Bond is okay for kids, if they are okay with large-scale violence. The movie is worth the price of the tickets. Another very good movie is "Little Miss Sunshine". A totally dysfunctional American family gets into a VW bus and drives to LA. At first, you think they're all just nuts, but after a while, you realize how well they get along with each other. It's an extremely funny black satire of American life. yrs, andreas www.andreas.com ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html