Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Rating: 6.5

What gets my interest most in the HP series is the magic stuff, like those groovy living paintings on the walls of Hogwarts, and the Escher-esqe moving staircases. Also , the adult characters played by those brilliant actors are just plain fun to watch. But the plot loses me a little, and I felt this was particularly the case in Order of the Phoenix. I have to say, though, I saw the film at the IMAX theater and the final 20 minutes were in 3-D. That was pretty spectacular. I actually would have been happy to scrap the other 2 hours of the film and just see that part. I wish all movies were in 3-D.

Sunshine

Rating: 8

Contrary to its perky title, Sunshine has a dark edge to it, probably because it comes from England and not from Hollywood. The director is Danny Boyle of Trainspotting and 28 Days Later. With any space movie, comparisons with other space movies are inevitable - Alien, 2001 and Solaris come to mind - but I still found Sunshine to have enough unexpected tweaks in the template to be engaging, frightening and fun.

Small Town Gay Bar

Rating: 6

The gist of the movie is pretty well summed up in the title. The small town is in rural Mississippi, and boy howdy, would it be a bummer to be gay there. If the fear in the expressions of the poor southern gays isn’t convincing enough, the film features Fred Phelps of Westboro Baptist Church, also known as the ‘God Hates Fags Guy’ and his sign-wielding minions, just hatin’ away. There isn’t a lot of originality here as far as bigotry documentaries go. Prejudice is bad. But seeing the victims of that hatred reminds me of those horror movies where the babysitter being chased by the axe-weilding maniac illogically refuses to leave the house. Holding their ground in that part of the country may eventually lead to further acceptance by the peckerwoods, but I still can’t help thinking: why don’t they just get the hell out of there?

Stardust

Rating: 3

I wouldn't recommend paying to see this movie in the theater, but if you want a kick in the pants, rent the dvd and fast forward to Robert DeNiro playing a gay pirate.

Rescue Dawn

Rating: 9

I disagree with some reviews I've read saying Rescue Dawn is redundant for those who have seen the documentary it was based on, Little Dieter Needs to fly. On the contrary, I think both films compliment one another beautifully. This is simply a great adventure story, and the actors approach it with rare determination. Herzog seems to take glee in torturing his performers but it isn't without purpose - I heard him say in an interview that in this age of ubiquitous CG effects, he wants audiences to be able trust their eyes again.

Oh, and one more thing: if you thought Christian Bale's skinniness in The Machinist was impressive, you'll enjoy the skeletal Jeremy Davies as Gene from Eugene (pictured in the background above.)