We almost never get the chance to actually GO to a movie theater, but we’ve been doing more buying and renting (Yay, Netflix!) of movies lately.

Michael Clayton. I liked the movie because of the incredible character portrayals. Every single character in it was believable and flawed and I could even sympathize with the characters who were doing Bad Things. I could totally understand why they felt that they had to do these Bad Things. Also, there was definable growth and change in the characters and it was fascinating to see how the interaction between the characters brought about that change. The plot and story were… adequate, and there were several strings left hanging at the end with one big old McGuffin that I really wanted more explanation of. So, the movie overall isn’t utterly fantastic, but it’s still very much worth seeing for the experience of sinking into the lives and emotions of the characters.

In the Valley of Elah. One hell of an anti-war movie, and really chilling in its depiction of the impact of war on these young men and women who are thrust into that world. Charlize Theron continues to impress the heck out of me with her incredible versatility. Tommy Lee Jones is a powerful actor, but I can’t help but feel that his mannerisms and vocal inflections are exactly the same in every movie he does. The movie is slow in spots, and I found it a bit hard to believe that Jones’ character was sooooo good at figuring out details of the investigation, but it was still a powerful, albeit depressing, movie that will definitely leave you thinking about it for a while.

Stardust Loved it! Neil Gaiman. Nuff said.

Evan Almighty I actually saw this for the first time on the plane to WFC last year and really enjoyed it. It got panned by critics who were comparing it to Bruce Almighty, but I think that’s like comparing Apples to Oranges. Sure, it’s a “sequel” but the fell of it is completely different. Jim Carrey is so much more of a clown compared to Steve Carel’s comic stylings. Moreover, this movie had a really cool feel-good message that I found charming.

As usual, there are several movies currently in the theaters that I’d like to see, especially Juno, but we’ll have to score some babysitters first. One movie I doubt I’ll go see is Jumper, mostly because I read the original book many years and loved it, and it became one of my favorite books. But from what I’ve read about it online, apparently, the movie storyline has approximately zero resemblance to the original and that just breaks my heart. If either of my loyal readers have read the book and seen the movie, please let me know your opinion.