I’ll be the first to admit, the story was a little strange to my Western senses. Or maybe I’m not enough of a mystic. Either way I followed it in broad strokes, but there was much that I missed. I’m sure of that much.

That said, it is worth seeing if you’re a visual sort. It is eye candy. The movie was shot in Mongolia in the winter. Yes, that’s right. In the winter. So the landscape was extra super stark and the air was clear in ways that only winter air can be. It lent to the atmosphere of the movie. It kind of makes me want to check out Mongolia.

I wanted to like this movie. Really, I did. It has some of my favorite actors in it, but I just couldn’t make myself like it no matter how much Terence Stamp was in it.

My only response to this when I saw it was, “wow.” And it is. Wow. It is easily the best movie I’ve seen in the theater since Pan’s Labyrinth, but that’s not saying much. New Moon isn’t much in the way of competition to this.

I didn’t think any individual performances overshadowed the others, though Tom Waits may have come close. Heath Ledger’s performance was sadly not long enough, though the substitution of other actors to fill out his role worked quite well. The transitions were seamless and made sense.

The big winner here was Terry Gilliam. At last special effects caught up with his imagination and came down to his budget. I cannot imagine what Brazil might have looked like with modern digital effects, but if this movie is any clue it would have been amazing. Why do I say this? Because this movie’s effects were amazing. In too many fantasy movies the effects almost seem to be there to be seen, whereas Gilliam uses it as an integral part of the story. It must be seen to be believed.

A heartily recommended movie.

This is the movie that Quentin Tarantino has been trying to make.

Frankenstein is a 19th century book—it’s going to be a bit different. It does not fail to deliver on different. It’s set in a frame story, which I have somewhat mixed feelings about. And at some points the layering of the stories within the story gets a bit overly-layered.

The character of Frankenstein was obnoxious—so self-absorbed and vacillating. The monster on the other hand, carries the book. The part that interested me was the monster’s transformation from only having the appearance of a monster to being a monster inside and out. Utterly spectacular.

I found some of the book (about the front third, give or take) to be tedious. But the rest of the book was very good, and in some spots sublime. I’d mark it as a read: it will completely reshape your conception of the story you thought you knew.

Watch this. Forget _Sideways_—though I suspect that one isn’t actually about wine. Of course, I suppose this one isn’t either.

Anyway, the characters in this are more likeable. Or, if dislikeable, funnier in their dislikeability. It is also based on a true story, though I don’t know that I consider that to be much of a reason to prefer it.

The main reason, in my mind anyway, is that the movie is beautifully filmed in beautiful country. The director allows the camera to luxuriate on California’s wine country. So much so that the land itself almost is a character in the movie.

Bottom line: Fun story, beautiful photography. Skip Sideways and watch Bottle Shock.

A beautifully shot movie. Wonderful cast.

It was a sprawling epic of a western, though set in Australia. And once I finished that movie, I got a coda on the story. Then it gave me a World War II movie as lagniappe.

Everything movies should be, but twice as much.

The Rock, Seann William Scott, a gun, burning stuff.

You need know no more. Movie delivers on these counts.

Until you remember how spoiled we are by digital effects. Given when the film was made—in World War II Britain—they are great. I might even say that they were trying to push technical limits, but I really don’t know enough about that sort of thing to say for sure.

You know, the cast looked pretty good.

But it seems like they were just making it up as they went along. I cannot believe that this movie had been written in advance with a screenplay and all. It felt more like, a let’s-go-to-Tahoe-and-make-a-gangster-movie-and-wouldn’t-it-be-cool-to-have-a-bunch-of-stuff-happen-that-dares-people-to-think-its-stupid movie.

xXx with Vin Diesel was better, and it wasn’t very good.