Mini-Review: A significantly different film than what it was sold as. This is Tarantino's best script since Pulp Fiction, and his best work ever in the director's chair. I really admire the way he chose to tell this story, in a string of long, detailed, dialogue-driven scenes. That's exactly what you'd expect from the man, but it's not what you expect from a WW2 revenge story. The foreign cast shines, particularly Waltz, Laurent and Brühl. A darkly funny slice of revisionist escapism. It's tense.

Mini-Review: In terms of comedy it's definitely one of Brooks' lesser efforts, but as a love letter to all things Hitchcock, it's a great success. The film perfectly recreates moments from all sorts of Hitchcock classics, and film buffs get to feel clever for knowing what's being spoofed. Still, while there are several great gags that had me laughing quite hard, the over-arcing plot tying it all together isn't enough to hold interest. For a Hitchcockian comedy, I prefer Dave Foley's The Wrong Man.

Mini-Review: A terrific film that has stayed on my mind for longer than I thought it might. I knew I liked it immediately, but my overall appreciation has only grown with time. This is Reitman's best film yet, and his directorial skill continues to evolve with each film. He strikes a perfect tone here, really capturing the isolation and hidden sadness of this modern life. All three leads give terrific work, but it's the brief roles that stuck with me - Simmons especially. Not perfect, but pretty damn great.

Mini-Review: Left me feeling infuriated just as often as it wowed me. "If you won't try to convert aliens to our silly earth religions, then NO SPACE FOR YOU." What?!? Foster gives a valiant effort but some of the acting is atrocious (McConaughey and Busey, I'm lookin' at you). Even the great John Hurt is kind of annoying here. For their time the visual effects are strong, and the climax of the film is great. It's just lacking something. For a film dedicated to Sagan, I'm not sure he would approve of this.

Mini-Review: Decently entertaining dramatization that has become increasingly interesting in light of recent events. Higgins does a good job of capturing Letterman, but the guy playing Leno isn't nearly as good. Not that it matters too much, as Kathy Bates' Helen Kushnick is the real star here, and what an insufferable bitch she is. Leno is shown here to be innocently naive for the most part so it's tough to imagine Jay doing this sort of thing again without Helen. Maybe he wasn't so innocent after all.