When I rented the Les Miserables DVD, I thought that was the title of the movie. Turns out it was a description of the audience. I want to be entertained when I see a movie. I don't mean it has to be funny. I mean I want it to be engrossing. I want to feel like I've been absorbed into the film. Like time has stood still, place evaporates, and space has collapsed into the movie and me. Chinatown comes to mind. Another one is Casablanca. And The Sting is a classic example. For me, Russell Crowe is the star of the show. A great singing villain. He is the only one, for me, whose singing almost mirrored a stream of consciousness -- not just singing, but thinking his singing, if that makes sense.

I'm a big fan of the original. Arnold's humor is my favorite part. This new one takes itself very seriously. That's not good. The film, after a good start and middle, falls apart at the end. From the moment Bryan Cranston arrives on the scene, the deterioration begins -- and I love Cranston. But the story has no convincing finish. Not a must see for everyone, but an almost-must see for fans of the original. It's nice to see the way they've integrated their references to the original.

I don't want to say that this is a must-see, but I do want to suggest that you might want to see it if you thought, say from the trailers, that this is some kind of updated Airport-type action movie.

The "flight" that has to do with action is only a very small part of the movie. The real "flight" has to do with Washington's flight from reality via drugs and alcohol, and what his addiction may or may not have to do with the plane accident.

A good job by Washington in a fairly simplistically reduced portrayal of an addict -- compared, say, to Jack Lemon in The Days of Wine and Roses, or Ray Milland in The Lost Weekend.

I'm a big baseball fan . . . I can't understand how they could make such a great story so boring. And adding in the family nonsense only detracted from the real importance of the story being told. It's a new system jockeying for position with the old tried and "true" -- sometimes -- method of nose to the ground scouting. And you know what? Mathematical percentages about a player's and his team's success has a rightful position in the mix. Not that it will ever replace good old fashion scouting, but it is at least as valid a tool. And this should be exciting, albeit for rabid baseball fans. But in this movie it's almost a non-event.

A beautiful story beautifully told. Actually, I think it was even worse for African Americans of the time. So it's a little Hollywoody, but still a powerfull statement about the plight of African Americans in the 60s redneck South.