YNOT at the Movies

Morgan Freeman plays a quiet observant professor who hangs out in a coffee shop most of the time during the day -- he is on leave of absence. The coffee shop owner, played by Greg Kinnear seems never have trouble to get involved with women, although he has a hard time to keep any of them. A young couples working in the coffee shop madly fall in love, but can they keep the love? It's a story about a group people, mgically gathered together, seek for the meaning of love and the endure the pain of fall in and out of love.

Based on the novel by Charles Baxter, the film is filled with interesting characters and terrific dialogues. Morgan Freeman's unforgettable confident voice shows us rich emotions deep inside the professor's heart. I am really impressed with Greg Kinnear's performance, because his character is so easy to become over the top, but Mr. Kinnear is able to find just the right tone for his character.

It's definitely an enjoyable film no matter one is in love or not, as long as not lack of "an appetite for love." Bring a date to this film is certainly recommended.

Dressed like a homeless person from San Francisco streets, Michael Douglas is released from a mental hospital and lives with his 17 years old daughter. He is obsessed to find hidden Spanish treasure that is supposed to buried somewhere not too far from where they live -- a local Costco. They begin their journey to uncover the treasure, even though everybody knows he is mentally unstable.

One might get a chuckle or two out of the film, however, simply because of the casting. We all have these sharp images of Michael Douglas in "Wall Street" or "A Perfect Murder." We always see him in an expensive suits talking eloquently. Now, he is in long beard and mumbling non-sense, which is totally beyond the expectation. But sadly, the joke is on Mr. Douglas's character, a mentally ill patient. He can't think straight. But why is he released from the hospital? Perhaps the people around him are really the ones can't think straight, because they tag along with his actions one step after another one. And by the end of the film by the end, we really can't tell if he is indeed crazy. The plot is simply an absurd mess.

Yet, it seems all these incompetent cheap shots labeled as humor are not bad enough, at the last scene, the film throws a bunch Chinese people to California shores. It's not comic, it is plain offensive and ignorant.

I thought I hate so much about "I Know Who Killed Me." Well, I hate this movie even more. Certainly it gets the title as the king of the worst films of the year.

The film focuses on daily routines of the Moss family, a married couple with two cars, two kids (and two dogs?) in suburbia Canada to reflect devastating effects of suburbia living in North America. Through thought provoking interviews with scholars, architects, social workers, residents, and using alarming statistics, the film pleas to stop these suburban developments that are harmful to our environment, to our communities, to our planet, and to the human race.

Suburbia living is indeed a process of going isolation. People drive out from their garages alone, get stuck in traffic alone in a car, walk in a cubical office alone, and drive home straight back into a garage alone. No human contact necessary day after day, and no one on the streets in a subdivision. Therefore, people need bigger and bigger house to jail themselves. The average living space in North America was 800 square foot per person in 1950. By 2000, it increased to 2,266 square foot per person.

I am glad that I figured this terrible trend earlier myself and changed my life the other way around. I moved out a four bedroom two car garage house in suburbia, and moved in a three bedroom apartment in the city. Couple years later, I went one step further. Last year, I moved to a smaller one bedroom apartment. It's definitely a positive change for me and I will never live in a 2300 plus square foot house by myself again. I need to live.

The film is not only provocative, and also quite funny. However, the problem I have with the film is the so-called "twist" at the end, which I don't know how to discuss it without giving away the film. I believe it discredits the excellent points the film are making earlier, because it gives the audience an impression that those facts and statistics might not be true after all.

Everybody should come up their own conclusions about this "twist" by watching the film themselves. Either way, it's an engaging film, and there will have plenty to laugh, think, and talk about after the film.

The film is part of the the 6th SF Doc Fest (Sep. 28 - Oct. 10 at the Roxie Theatre), which will show 45 films from eight countries. The festival opens with the interesting "What Would Jesus Buy?" (USA 2007, 90 min.) and close with the fascinating "Audience of One."

Seann William Scott plays a successful self-help book author. He returns to Kansas and finds out something terrifying: his mom, played by Susan Sarandon, is about to marry his abusive gym teacher, played by Billy Bob Thornton. He decides to do something to keep Thornton away from his mom.

I don't know what Susan Sarandon and Billy Bob Thornton were smoking when they agreed to make this film. The movie is full of tasteless and juvenile jokes that beg for a cheap laugh. Somebody please enlighten me: why is it funny when Seann William Scott dips Billy Bob Thornton's whistle into the toilet?

I should have known better that this film is gonna be so bad because Seann William Scott is in it. The only slightly funny part in the film is when Billy Bob Thornton says mean things like those in "Bad Santa". But the film neither has a sense of humor nor a coherent plot. It's a lifeless piece of frozen TV dinner.

Do Sarandon and Thornton really need that money by making garbage like this film? That seems a joke that is funnier than any scene from the film. What a waste of talents.