I’m way behind in my mini-movie reviews, so I’m going to try to bang them all out over the weekend. Here’s the first three:
Cars – 8/10 – Why does there seem to be more truth and entertainment in animated films than live action ones these days? Gorgeous animation, great characters, and a clever plot. I really appreciated how they wove in the theme of the death of small town America without it being heavy-handed. Fun, as they say, for the whole family.
Superman Returns – 5.5/10 – So earnest. Way too earnest for 2006, if you ask me. Bryan Singer is a great storytelling director, but there wasn’t much new here to excite me. Singer, as far as I could tell, didn’t have anything original to say about the character. Kate Bosworth was miserably miscast, but Parker Posey, as always, was a joy to watch. I have some further thoughts on why the film isn’t great.
An Inconvenient Truth – 7/10 – The film is essentially a table play–a lecture at the cinema. It’s a compelling lecture, and a stunning sales pitch for Apple’s Keynote, but that’s what it is. Gore is a charismatic, self-effacing speaker, and (having delivered the talk over a thousand times) knows his material very well. He does a very good job of dumbing down the science, which I appreciated.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
I liked Superman Returns although it’s not one of my faves this year. It did lack a little pep in its step. I found Kevin’s Spacey’s Lex Luthor missing something. I’ve seen this character played a number of different ways but the core of the character is the strong drive to be so powerful that it’s ludicrous. Didn’t get that from Spacey. The Lois Lane was more like what the character was in the early comics. I thought the portrayal was decent (of course the “real” Lois Lane will always be “Margot Kidder”!). It was nice to see Peta Wilson again (blond woman on plane – from tv’s Nikita) and the actor who played Superman was a lot better than I thought he was going to be. I would give it a 6.5/10.
My new fave movie is “A Scanner Darkly”, it’s not for everyone though, it is done in Graphic Novel style so you have to like that sort of thing. Robert Downey Jr. was awesome in this film.