When Pam Byrnes (Teri Polo) says, “I’m going to be Pamela Martha Focker! Yes, I know how that sounds!” it pretty much says it all about this sequel to the money-making machine, the 2000 Meet the Parents.   By now just about everyone who wanted to has seen this film starring Robert DeNero, Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, Barbra Streisand and Blythe Danner, has done so. Pam and Greg (Stiller) accompany his parents, the Focker’s (DeNero and Danner), to Florida... Read more

Dan Foreman (Dennis Quaid) is a 51-year old family man and ad executive for a national sports magazine. He is enjoying his success when a huge multinational media corporation buys the magazine and he is replaced by an upwardly mobile and successful executive from the cell phone division of the corporation, 26-year old, Carter Duryea (Topher Grace). Though Dan is not “let go” (the euphemism the corporation used instead of the offensive word “fired”), he is dismayed by the changes... Read more

When sports memorabilia seller Nick Persons (Ice Cube) spots the lovely divorcee Suzanne (Nia Long) standing outside the party store where she works in downtown Portland, OR, he is smitten. He has just picked up his new late-model Lincoln SUV and is feeling good indeed. But he finds out from his colleague Marty (Jay Mohr) that she has two kids and loses interest. But on the way home, Suzanne’s car breaks down and Nick stops to help her. This leads... Read more

Golden Globes 2005: Who I think will win (see below for the list of those I would like to see win) Best Motion Picture Drama Million Dollar Baby Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Sideways Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama Don Cheadle, Hotel Rwanda Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Jamie Foxx, Ray  Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama Imelda Staunton, Vera Drake Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Annette Bening, Being... Read more

Hotel Rwanda is certainly the most significant film of 2004. I want to single it out for its witness to courage and the power of one person and his family, to step forward and do what needs to be done to save the lives of others – sharing the same risk of death. Don Cheadle’s performance as hotel mamager Paul Rusesabaginais is Oscar worthy, and it would not surprise me if Sophie Okonedo as his wife Tatiana gets a nomination... Read more

When a baby zebra falls off the back of a circus truck in rural Kentucky, Nolan Walsh (Bruce Greenwood), a former horse trainer, picks him up from the road and takes him to his farm. His 16-year old daughter Channing (Hayden Panettiere) names him “Stripes” (voice of Frankie Muniz) and he joins the farm animal community as a little beast who is just a little different. His time in the pasture is spent well.  Everyday he races the mail truck... Read more

Let me begin by saying that 2004 was not a great year for the movies – at least not like 2003. However, some of the 88 films I saw this year (out of 250 top earning movies released in the US) do rise to the top.   My criteria for the top 12 are   –         excellence in filmmaking –         how well the film tells a story –         transcendence –         or the ability of the film to launch conversations about things that matter,... Read more

I just watched Hero on DVD. Although it was first released in 2002, was in competition at the Berlin Film Festival in 2003 (I was on the ecumenical jury there, and this is the one film that I missed because of scheduling), Hero only made it to US theaters in 2004. The story is not difficult to follow. In ancient times, before China was united, an assassin, No Name (Jet Li) appears before the King of Qin (please check www.imdb.org... Read more

Bill Murray plays Steve Zissou with underwhelming relish. Zissou is supposed to be a kind of Jacques Cousteau, or a National Geographic oceanographer filmmaker or something, but he’s actually a grass-smoking aquatic fraud in the midst of a midlife crisis that may have begun at least thirty years previously. At least.   When his best friend and partner (? we never see him) is killed by the Jaguar shark (?), Steve pledges to go and find the shark and kill... Read more

  Hotel Rwanda: Bearing Witness           On December 22, Hotel Rwanda, Golden Globe nominee for Best Motion Picture – Drama, will open in Los Angeles and New York. Directed by Terry George, Hotel Rwanda is the story of Paul Rusesabagina who can rightly be called Rwanda’s Oskar Schindler. With the support of his wife, his business acumen and humble humanity,  Paul Rusesabagina was responsible for saving the lives of more than 1,200 Rwandan people during the genocide of 1994.... Read more