Dans Papers - May 25, 2007 - Mike Vilensky's Mini-Movie Reviews

Shrek 3
Two animated feature films were already two more movies than I needed to see about a giant green ogre with inner beauty. Third time is not the charm for this fluffy (albeit funny) finale. Next.

Waitress
Keri Russell may have graduated from playing an NYU student, but that adorable angst is still in tact in this enjoyable sleeper hit. Enjoy this film's simplicity - it may be your last chance to avoid explosions until August.

Pirates of the Carribean At World's End
What will the movie studios do when they run out of already successful sequels to turn into triumvirates? Not make the same movie for a third time? Maybe. But until then enjoy Depp in all his creepy-cool glory for the exciting last act (and here's hoping it is the last).

Bug
Insects inside your skin? Color me creeped out. This film is successfully unsettling but not much more. And it kind of bugged me. Ugh, that was an awful pun.

Angel A
It's French and it's black and white. That's enough to either drive you to the theatre or keep you miles away (or at Shrek 3 with your kids). Regardless, it's a sexy combination and a valiant effort, especially with the stunning cinematography.

The Boss of It All
Apparently, this week, if you're not a big budget ending to a trilogy, you're foreign and uncomfortably sexual. Is there no middle ground? Imagine a movie with comparisons to NBC's "The Office," yet has "Oral Sex" as one of it's IMDB Plot Keywords. And it's sort of dark. And Dutch. But funny! Go see this enigmatic and enticing film for yourself.

Paprika
Animated but not American. Foreign, but not sexy. This movie seems to have no place in this week's crop, but it should because it's beautiful, kind of crazy and Japanese. It hits you hard and then leaves you thinking. All of which is sort of like sushi. Is that offensive?

Golden Door
An Italian period piece with stellar reviews. Aside from interest in Charlotte Gainsbourg (also known as the hot chick from Science of Sleep), I, for one, am sort of bored. (But it borders on brilliant.)

Spiderman 3
If you saw Spiderman and Spiderman 2 (which is statistically likely given how much money they both made), you can probably guess that this movie is action-packed and seemingly stupid yet inexplicably good. Is this one darker? More mature? Um, no? It's still Spiderman, and it's still incredibly entertaining. But with its record-breaking box office numbers, I don't think any review would stop you from seeing this movie.

28 Weeks Later
Who knew zombie movies could be so smart? Well-made and entertaining like its precursor, this film keeps you on your toes throughout and then stays in your mind for at least a good 28 minutes later.

Disturbia
For a mystery-thriller, this movie is relatively straightforward. It's got teen appeal and it's sort of harmless, but Hitchcockian? Not quite. Shia LaBeouf - spare me.

Georgia Rule
If only Lindsay Lohan could be cured of her bad girl ways by a summer with her grandmother. Something tells me that this movie's messages and meaning are more touching and useful than whatever it's starlet picked up at Promises. That said, she may have shown up late to the set, but once Lohan got there she pulled off a strong performance in this moving chick flick.

Paris Je t'aime
Any one of these eighteen vignettes about life, love and loss in the City of Lights was better than most of the full-length feature films I saw in theatres this year. This collection of short films by all-star directors with indie favorite actors proves that two minutes of screen-time can say more than most trilogies. Alexander Payne's hilarious American tourist in Paris and Natalie Portman's ineffable cuteness are just two of this movie's many highlights.