I'm way overdue for some proper reviews, but to be fair, I've been so busy SEEING movies that I haven't had a chance to say anything about them! For now I'll address the last three I've seen in theatres:

The Number 23

I had high hopes. On some level, this film could have actually worked; Jim Carrey certainly does have the depth of darkness he needed to make his character(s) creepy and twisted. But the problem was the writing. What starts out as a movie about a guy whose wife buys him a book that sounds like it's his biography, then develops a fixation with the prevelance of the number 23 in his life, which leads him to start wondering if he's as crazy as the book's character seems to be... Well, it all ends up in a slapdash, seven-minute loose-end tie-up party. It felt like Joel Schumacher ran out of fascinating facts to give us about what 23 represents in history, and realized he was actually directing a movie that needed and end, so he tacked on a really far-out "climax" that leaves viewers feeling like they missed a whole lotta something.

I'd like to see Jim Carrey do something else in this vein, something dark and sinister and scary. But it'd have to have more clout than this one did. Frankly I think I'd have spent my time better if I could have just read the book his character was reading.

Black Snake Moan

Sam Jackson's wife has left him. Christina Ricci is whoring around own after her boyfriend (Justin Timberlake, in his second of two very capable performances so far this year) ships off with the army. Their paths cross through a serendipitous event (if you can call it that), and what results is Black Snake Moan, two hours of watching Ricci half-naked and chained to Jackson's radiator as he tries to train the devil out of her.

It's surprisngly entertaining. I went in expecting it to be exploitative and crass, but I was captivated throughout as I watched the two main characters change and find similarities in the unlikeliest of places between them. Granted, seeing Ricci so horrifically underweight was kind of nauseating, but it got the point across. And it turns out that this film is a love story, though probably not the kind most would go in expecting.

My only complaint was the bizarrely out-of-place and bordering-on-sugarcoated ending. The last five minutes feels like a different movie. I'd have been happier if it had ended in a darker way, but if that's the worst I can say about it, then it already exceeded my expectations.

300

There's nothing I can say about this film expect "SEE IT". Frank Miller hit a home run with "Sin City"; this, I daresay, was a grand slam. It's gory, it's funny, it's touching, it's electrifying... Gerard Butler is my new hero. Just see it. Even if those "kinds" of movies aren't "your thing", I can almost guarantee you'll come out of 300 feeling like you just got off a really great rollercoaster.