Good fun, as sequels go, and this time the loss of memory occurs in Bangkok, a city I know almost as well as Las Vegas. I will say they got a lot right, from the narrow streets and anything goes atmosphere to the power failures and heat. This time it’s Stu’s wedding that gets the Wolf Pack back in action. So many great little vignettes are strung together, from the cigar-smoking monkey and the revelations of “fun with Kimmy” to Phil’s $6 medical care and Alan’s “gift” at the wedding, as the gang searches for brother-in-law-to-be Teddy this time instead of Doug. The writing team did not stray far at all from the winning formula of the first Hangover and it still works. BTW… Stu’s lyrics to Alantown sung to the tune of Billy Joel’s Allentown are priceless. Just don’t ask where the guitar came from.

Oliver Stone certainly knows how to tell a story. This look at the life of America’s 43rd President paints a portrait of George W. Bush (Josh Brolin) before and after his rebirth in Christianity and turn away from the bottle. Quite a contrast! Yet in many ways the W. who emerges as Commander-in-Chief is still the same hot-headed, ungrounded troublemaker he was as a student at Yale as he goes off hunting WMDs in Iraq. It was a special treat watching Richard Dreyfuss as the Vice, dastardly Dick Cheney, and James Cromwell as Bush the Elder. The entire cabinet was well portrayed, from Colin Powell (who comes off as a true patriot and hero) and Conny Rice (a conniving wet noodle) to warmonger Donald Rumsfeld and even political harpie Karl Rove. I thoroughly enjoyed this, despite my personal dislike of the man called George, Geo, Bush, Bushie, Junior and Dubya. One complaint: The use of buffoonish music in the background bothered me in many places, such as the theme from Robin Hood and the Yellow Rose of Texas. A bit over the top, IMHO.

As relationship movies go, this is okay, not great but doesn’t suck. What made me rate it a bit above average was the incredibly fine acting of Donald Sutherland as the aging grandfather contemplating suicide as an end of life choice. The romantic relationship between a stuck-in-Minneapolis loser (Joshua Jackson) and a transient caregiver (Juliette Lewis) was a bit of “who cares?” A better question is: How is it that Sutherland has never been nominated for an Oscar???

Take a bit of baseball mixed with a father and son grieving for their lost wife/mother, add a pinch of time travel and stir in a morality lesson, shake well with two excellent veteran actors and the movie can’t go too far wrong. Time travel is always a bugaboo, especially when the script depends entirely on someone meeting his younger self. Too many paradoxes to deal with. The director could have done a better job with the pacing, too – a lot of heel dragging till the supposed “event,” which we later learn is not the “real” event. Still, there was enough good about it to keep my interest for 94 minutes.

One of Belushi’s last films, and certainly not his best (Animal House, Blues Brothers, it’s hard to compete), but a very likable story of a Chicago newspaper reporter who falls for a Colorado high-country ornithologist. Will make you want to put a cross-country train ride on your bucket list. The nature scenes and bald eagles are truly beautiful.

Great good fun. Diaz should never be allowed near a classroom (or students) ever, but she can wash my car ANYtime. Definitely worth waiting to see the unrated version on DVD, along with the outtakes and deleted scenes. Timberlake is such a DORK in this. Even sings badly. Can’t believe he accepted the part!

The quest comes to an end at last. Questions are answered. Secrets are revealed. And the series closed much the way I thought it would. Certainly one of the best Man vs. Machine sagas I have seen. I truly enjoyed the journey.

This remake of the film “Brødre” follows the Danish original quite closely, but with a distinctly American style. The acting is excellent and the themes are universal as two brothers – one a marine returned from war (Maquire) and the other a felon released from prison (Gyllenham) – attempt to come to terms with their pasts and feelings for the older brother’s wife (Portman).

Silly romantic comedy doesn’t stray far from convention, but in family films the tried and true works well. Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, animals teach boy how to get girl back, boy gets girl back, boy discovers she ain’t so great after all, happy ending assured anyway. Just think Dr. Zoolittle. Lots of celebrity voices included, from Stallone to Cher to Rickles to Nolte and more.

The home invasion genre of movies gets yet another twist. This time badies “have to” commit the crime – victims preying on victims. Kidman and Cage are good enough, as far as the acting goes, but the revelations that play out as they are being terrorized in their home (estate) just don’t gain much audience sympathy. Rich folks getting robbed. Not even very honest rich folks. I could not completely get into it.