88 Minutes

88 Minutes

Al Pacino, Alicia Witt, LeeLee Sobieski, William Forsythe, Amy Brenneman, Neal McDonough

Synposis: A thriller about a college professor who, while moonlighting as a forensic psychiatrist for the FBI, receives a death threat telling him that he has only 88 minutes to live.

Pacino is both great and completely irritating in this film.

The story managed to captivate my wife’s interest enough that she stayed awake WELL past 10 PM to watch it, so the “thriller” portion of it is worthy of 3 stars… but Pacino’s character is so flippin’ smug that you kinda wind up hating him even though he’s the hero.

Pink Panther 2

Pink Panther 2

Steve Martin, Jean Reno, Andy Garcia, Alfred Molina, Emily Mortimer, Aishwarya Rai, Yuki Matsuzaki, John Cleese

They spent a little too much time trying to make clever romantic innuendos when they should’ve stuck to the pratfalls that made the character famous. Still, it’s not completely awful and there are a few funny moments that weren’t spoiled by the trailer.

If you catch it on cable or some such, it’d be a decent watch, but don’t spend a lot renting it and it’s definitely not a “purchase” type of flick.

Tug-O-War

What do you do on a rainy Sunday afternoon? Actually, about a thousand good responses spring to mind, but since we just bought a Flip Ultra HD camcorder, I decided to shoot a quick video of Gretchen and Butter playing.

The two of them had been going at it for about fifteen minutes already, which is why Butter (the butterball) is so out of breath.

The Spirit

The Spirit

Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson, Eva Mendez, Scarlett Johansson

So this was way more campy than I’d expected… but if viewed as an homage to Will Eisner and his original comic from the 1930s (1940s?) when that style of humor was prevalent, then Frank Miller did a great job. Hey – where else are you going to get to hear Samuel L. Jackson quip, “Come on, toilets are ALWAYS funny!”?

The story is entertaining and it’s filmed like a live action comic. If you found Sin City enjoyable, you’ll probably like this one.

Transporter 3

Transporter 3

Jason Statham, Natalya Rudakova, François Berléand, Robert Knepper

This turned out much better than I’d anticipated. It’s a Transporter film, so basic plot holds (put girl in car, drive fast, get in fights)… I enjoyed seeing the progression of the relationship between Frank and the Inspector. Expect lots of chase scenes, some decent fights (man, is Statham ripped or what?!) and an explosion or two.

Is it the best action flick out there? No, but it’s still a fun way to spend an hour & a half.

Snow?

I spent 45 minutes this morning shoveling snow… SNOW! I moved to Tennessee to get away from this junk, dangit! Hey – does this count as March coming in like a Lion or a Lamb? We got a little over 4 inches last night. Gretchen loved it and was out playing in it the entire time I was clearing our drive. Well, at least I got my workout for the day in…

As a side note, I can pretty much guarantee you that every grocery store within 15 miles of here has been ransacked of all of their bread. For some unknown reason, Tennesseans see snow and immediately think, “I NEED TOAST NOW!!!”