9.5 Blazing Saddles

Re-watched this old classic recently with boo, we were bustin’ a gut… it’s so hard to find stuff this brilliant any more… must have single-handedly made the word “nigger” laughable and irrelevant… big comic book larger-than-life laughs on a budget that was probably so small that Mel Brooks (and Richard Pryor and all the other writers) could get away with following impulses pretty much anywhere they went…


“‘scuse me while I whip this out…”

9.5 Pulse

I just realized, several toe-tapping hours after the end of this movie-trip-around-the-world, that there wasn’t a single spoken word of English in it! It was that good that I didn’t even notice. I want to see this one a hundred times more!

Fortunately, I found the web site for the movie and LOTS of the rhythms and images are captured there, to jog my memory and keep me humming tapping and drumming on my potbelly for a long time to come… JAMMIN’!

9.0 High Fidelity

Jammed with wit, Ferris-Bueller-protagonist-as-narrator-style, and a running alternative-music subtext perfect for those of us reared on the late-70’s punk rock thingee. GREAT supporting characters, too, including John’s ever-present sister, Jack Black (whooop!), and extended cameos by Tim Robbins and Lisa Bonet. All that is mere icing on the cake of the main storyline, John Cusack’s study of the long line of girlfriends that have dumped him (at least in his mind). ’nuff spoilin!

9.0 White Oleander

Intense bittersweet movie about a girl who gets manipulated equally by her imprisoned mom desperate for control and the foster home environments she parades through. Great supporting characters along the way. There’s a lot of ground covered so there’s not room for too much depth, but watching Astrid strengthen while finding her confidence was inspiring.

9.0 Blue Crush

Nobody else liked this, but c’mon, beautiful badass girls kicking butt on beautiful waves? I can’t get enougha that! Until I looked it up on IMDB, I was totally convinced they just recruited three surfer girls for this flick. Go ahead and believe it yourself…we are we are…