Desicritics Author: Triniman

Installing Ubuntu Linux 7.10, Gutsy Gibbon

Triniman — Tue, 5 Feb 2008 00:30:46 EST

South Africa's Ubuntu, an open source software company featuring a new version of Linux and its derivatives every six months, is the world's most popular family of Linux distributions. I say "family" because Ubuntu Server and Desktop also have specialized "sister" distributions, including Kubuntu, Edbuntu, Xubuntu and Gobuntu. According to the 2007 Desktop Linux Survey, Ubuntu has a leading 30% of the Linux desktop market, with Novell's Suse in second place at 21%.

While Canonical, the European commercial sponsor of Ubuntu, will mail you copies of the operating system on cd-rom absolutely for free, I opted instead to download the ISO file of the alternate install CD, which I then burned to cd-rom. This is the text-based installer which is faster. The version they can mail to you, which you can also download for free, is the the live CD, which runs in RAM only, unless you decide to install it to the hard drive.

The following instructions are not exhaustive, but they will allow you to easily install Ubuntu on the entire hard drive, without having to worry about creating more than one partition. Other instructions, with screen shots, can be found on Ubuntu's wiki.

I recently learned that in the US, Microsoft Windows Vista will be making about 100 million desktop computers obsolete and ready for the scrap heap, since Vista has higher hardware requirements than previous versions of Windows. This massive surplus of PCs has Linux community volunteers anticipating donating computers, naturally hardened against malware and other security risks, to families who currently do not have home computers. While not invulnerable against Internet security risks, the Linux operating system is 100% free for download and can be reinstalled and shared, with the license restrictions common to proprietary operating systems.

As more and more people will find out, there's little that you can't do on a Linux computer and each Linux distro (bootable Linux discs) contains multitudes of free applications worth hundreds of dollars. After installing Ubuntu Linux, you will see just how easy it is to select among hundreds of free open source applications, with a few mouse clicks. Do some googling and you will see many ways to customize the appearance of your desktop, with themes that mimic the beauty of Apple's MacIntosh and the eye candy slickness of Windows XP. While it shares UNIX heritage similar to Mac OS X and its successors, Linux comes in many different variations and for the hobbyist, is a joy to discover.

Step-by-step installation of Ubuntu 7.10

PC: 2 GHz Pentium 4, 1 GB RAM

Ubuntu 7.10 alternate install cd-rom used (downloaded.) Note, this is the text-based install of Ubuntu, not the live CD. The live CD version runs from RAM and doesn't install on your hard drive, and it is a great way to see what Ubuntu is about without committing to it.

1. Insert the CD-rom into the computer.

--> [Boot the PC with the install cd-rom: hit the reset button or just turn the computer off then on]

2. In the first screen, you see a list of options.

--> [select “Install in text mode,” from the list of options. You can also select “Check CD for defects,” to make sure the CD-ROM is not corrupted.]

3. A “Choose language” screen appears.

--> [select “English – English”]

4. A second “Choose language” screen appears.

Select country, territory or area.
--> [select “Canada”]

5. The “Ubuntu installer main menu” screen appears.

“You can try to have your keyboard layout detected by pressing a series of keys. If you do not want to do this, you will be able to select your keyboard layout from a list.

Detect keyboard layout?”

--> [select “Yes”]

6. Another “Ubuntu installer main menu” appears.

Keyboard layout detection complete. Based on the keys you pressed, your keyboard layout appears to be "us:intl." If this is not correct, you can go back and select your keyboard layout from the full list instead.

7. "Detecting hardware from cd-rom drives" message flashes by quickly, followed by "searching CD-ROM drive," then "loading additional hardware," and ”Configuring DHCP."

8. The “Configure the network” screen appears.

Please enter the host name for this system. The hostname is a single word that identifies your system to the network. If you don't know what your hostname should be, consult your network administrator. If you are setting up your own home network, you can make up something."

--> [you can accept the default name "ubuntu"]

9. The “Detecting disks and all other hardware” message flashes by.

10. The “Partition disks” screen appears.

The installer can guide you through partitioning a disk (using different standard schemes) or, if you prefer, you can do it manually. With guided partitioning, you will still have a chance later to review and customize the results.

If you choose guided partitioning for an entire disk, you will next be asked which disk should be used.

Petitioning method:

--> “Guided - use entire disk” [select this one]

11. Another “Partition disks” screen appears.

Note that all data on the disk you select will be erased, but not before you have confirmed that you really want to make changes.

Select the disks to partition.

--> [the highlighted hard drive is selected, hit Enter]

12. Another “Partition disks” screen appears

If you continue, the changes listed below will be written to the disks. Otherwise, you will be able to make further changes manually.

--> [select “Yes”]

13. The message “Creating the ext3 file system” flashes by.

14. The “Configure time zone” screen appears.

Select your time zone.

--> [select "Central"]

15. The “Configure the clock” screen appears.

System clocks are generally set to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The operating system uses your time zone to convert system time into local time.
This is recommended unless you also use another computer operating system that expects the clock to be set to local time.

Is the clock set to UTC?

--> [select “Yes”]

16. A “Set up users and passwords” screen appears.

A user account will be created for you to use instead of the root account for non-administrative activities. Please enter the real name of this user. This information will be used for instances as default origin for e-mails sent by the user as well as any program which displays or users the users' real name. You full name is reasonable choice.

--> [enter a name]

17. Another “Set up users and passwords” screen appears.

Select a username for the new account. Your first name is a reasonable choice. The username should start with a lower-case letter followed by any combination of numbers and more lower-case letters.

[enter username]

18. Another “Set up users and passwords” screen appears.

A good password will contain a mixture of letters, numbers and punctuation and should be changed at regular intervals.

Please enter the user password again verify you have typed it correctly.

--> [type in your password]

Re-enter password to verify.

[type in password again]

19. An “Installing the base system” message flashes by.

20. The “Configuring xserver –xorg” screen appears.

Please keep only the resolution you would like the xserver to use. Removing all of them is the same as removing none, since in both cases, the xserver will attempt to use the highest possible resolution.

--> [select 1024 x 768]

21. The “Finish the installation screen” appears.

Installation complete.

--> [Reboot the computer]

22. The Ubuntu splash screen appears.

--> [Type in user ID, then on the next screen, type in password.]

23. At the desktop.

--> [Click on the "star" icon to bring up the Update Manager.]

--> [Choose to install 185 updates]

24. Adding programs.

--> [Click on Applications, Add/Remove to bring up a list of applications that can be selected for install.]

The list is huge but is broken down by category and you can search easily for specific applications or capabilities. This is essentially a GUI for Synaptic Package Manager, which previously required command line entries to use.

Ubuntu is a powerful way of getting onto the Linux bandwagon, if you have the motivation, and its been proven to induce that motivation for those who haven't yet taken the leap.

Movie Review: Breach

Triniman — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 00:06:07 EST

There's nothing particularly wrong with Breach, a story about the surveillance and capture of FBI agent Robert Hanssen, the biggest intelligence security offense in US history, but it's not as gripping as it could have been.

Chris Cooper appears yet again as a stern, humourless, government man, senior FBI agent Robert Hanssen. Hanssen attends mass every day and otherwise appears to lead an exemplary lifestyle, despite his arrogance and rudeness. Ryan Phillippe plays a junior FBI employee hoping to make it to agent, who is enlisted to spy on Hanssen. Together, they end up in an office in which they are supposed to plan out a new way for the bureau to handle electronic case data.

Both Phillippe and Cooper are adequate in their roles, but the scowling Cooper brings nothing new to the role that he has seemingly played a million times in other films, such as the Bourne series. It just seems like we're watching the same guy from any number of Cooper films. It would be an understatement to say that he is consistent in his characters. There seems to be a ceiling with Phillippe's acting abilities and I wish they could have picked someone with a bit more depth. He lacks the inner fire to really seem like someone playing cat and mouse with a master cat. Laura Linney plays the agent handler for Phillippe's character, Eric O'Neill, and she is superb in all her scenes.

There's a lack of unpredictable tension. Every possible conflict has been seen before and their outcomes are already known. No surprises. The script doesn't tell the story about how Hanssen became a turncoat or why he did it. Now, that would have been interesting. Hanssen was a member of Opus Dei, and his brother-in-law, who also worked for the FBI, told the bureau back in 1990 that Hanssen should be investigated for spying after discovering unusual amounts of cash in Hanssen's home. We also didn't see any of Hanssen's relationship with a stripper, who he was apparently trying to get "closer to God." You wonder if they couldn't have included more background on Hanssen's motives and yet still kept the film to a reasonable length.

This isn't an action thriller by any means. It has more in common with the cerebral CIA birth film The Good Shepherd, than say, The Bourne Identity. On the other hand, one could say that by focusing on the overall life of Robert Hanssen, this isn't a run of the mill spy film. Either way, it's not as compelling as it could have been.

Director Billy Ray has ten films under his belt as writer, but this is his second outing in the director's chair, having debuted with Shattered Glass. His screenplays include Flightplan, Suspect Zero, Volcano and Hart's War.

Breach also stars Dennis Haysbert (President Palmer from 24), who appears yet again as a government "man".

My rating for this film is 3 out of 5 stars.

Movie Review - Partition

Triniman — Sat, 3 Feb 2007 06:34:51 EST

When the British ended over 300 years of rule in India, it was split in two to create a country for the Muslims - Pakistan. Huge populations of people moved either to Pakistan or away from that land and to India. During the migration, people's frustrations often boiled over and took shape as religious violence. Partition takes place during that period.

Our hero is a simple, single Sikh farmer, Gian, played by Jimi Mistry, most recently seen as Nabil in Blood Diamond. He's stoic, honorable and loyal. While in the forest, he chances upon a young woman in hiding, Naseem. She was part of a caravan of Muslims who were ambushed and slaughtered by a group of Sikhs. He tries to hide her in his compound, but soon the villagers find out and they become desperate to spill her blood, in revenge for the train load of massacred Sikhs that just arrived.

Jimi Mistry was excellent and very convincing as a humble and morally strong Sikh. His character was a professional soldier, but as a farmer, he was not about to succumb to blinding religious rage and recklessly kill others for revenge. Looking into his contemplative eyes, one could see a quiet intelligence, but as we later learned, he was also trying to hide deep personal emotional wounds from the war. There was a certain depth to his performance that makes me hope we see more of him in film.

Kristin Kreuk may be half Dutch, half Indonesian Chinese, but like fellow Canadian actress Lisa Ray, who is half Indian and half Polish and who starred in the Oscar nominated film Water (as well as the bomb Bollywood/ Hollywood), Kreuk didn't seem miscast to me at all. There are fair skinned Indians and during the film, I never wondered for a second just how much, if any, Indian blood Kreuk had in her. I have never seen her in anything else, despite the popularity of shows like Edgemont and Smallville. Had they cast Nicole Kidman, then I might say that she doesn't look Indian and that was a distraction. In some scenes, her complexion did make her stand out, but for me it wasn't a negative. I can see how someone could make an issue of her being miscast based on her oriental features but that just wasn't an issue for me.

The film seemed to lack something to make it truly exceptional. I can't quite put into words what separates a good film like this one from a truly exception one. It felt more like a made for television movie than something comparable to the 1982 film Gandhi. The production values were all right, but little things like the indoor sound miking was bush league. I couldn't clearly make out some of the Neve Campbell's lines indoors. I wouldn't have used Campbell as a Brit, for starters. I can't say she's really impressed me in her film career. Given that this was a Canadian co-production, I'm not surprised to see her and thank goodness they didn't use Sarah Polley, but you'd think they could have found someone with a better accent. All the Indian actors were excellent, although, since their characters were not developed much, many of them came across as mere stereotypes. Dhirendra, known for starring in the Canadian television Jinnah crime movies, shows up as Sharma while Chenier Hundal, who co-starred in another Vic Sarin film, 2005's Murder Unveiled, plays one of Naseem's brothers. Vinay Pathak, one of the best Indian actors, plays the rotund village businessman in Partition, and he played the corrupt police inspector in Murder Unveiled as well as the transvestite in Water.

Overall, this film is ultimately about two people who saved each other and the struggles the faced to stay together, in the face of strong religious intolerance. Not a feel-good film but a rather sad one and a decent but not superb, drama.

My rating for this film is 3.5/5.

Movie Review - Notes On A Scandal

Triniman — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 01:56:17 EST

Dame Judi Dench plays Barbara, an old, stern teacher, who is single and lonely. Cate Blanchett is Sheba, the new hottie art teacher, married with two kids. The two bond as the older one looks out for the new one. One of the students, a 15 year-old, develops a crush on the art teacher and when their affair is chanced upon by Barbara, she agrees to keep it secret from the school headmaster so long as Sheba ends the relationship, with the hope and expectation that Sheba will increase the closeness but also the intimacy, of their growing friendship.

Barbara is creepy with increasingly unhealthy obsession for Sheba, perhaps based on lesbian feelings and is exacerbated by her loneliness, having only an old cat as her companion. Judi Dench is excellent in this role. Cate Blanchett is also strong. Her character is a bit bored with her marriage and when the student takes a fancy to her, it sets off a fire within that has been dormant for a while. Bill Nighy played the role of Sheba's husband, a former teacher of his, twenty years her senior (and in real life, too) and showed that he is also superb at playing drama, in addition to his recent comedic roles.

Notes On A Scandal doesn't have the over-the-top feel of say, Single White Female, another film in which one woman becomes obsessed with another, and that is a plus. You can tell it wasn't a slick, overly calculated Hollywood film. This isn't a feel-good film by any means, but it provides insight into human vulnerability and the unbalanced minds of those who would prey upon it.

My rating for this film is 5 out of 5 stars.

Movie Review - The Good German

Triniman — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 16:30:29 EST

Made with vintage film equipment in order to give it an authentic 1940's look, The Good German is a bleak, humorless, black & white film centered around the Potsdam conference at the close of WWII, in which Russia, Britain and the US negotiate with each other to clean up the war with treaties, etc. Returning to Germany, Captain Jacob 'Jake' Geismer played by George Clooney chances upon a former lover Lena, played by Cate Blanchett. The Americans are very interested in German missile technology and the hunt is on to gather up German rocket scientists to whisk them away to the US, even if it is necessary to hide their roles in participating in the Holocaust. Lena is tied into this and is anxious to leave Germany.

Kudos for the look of the film but it failed to gain traction with me since it felt slow and I didn't really care much for the characters. The Lena character was also not very appealing with her sour demeanor. She's obviously unhappy and either carrying a heavy burden or has had her spirit defeated due to the daily struggling to survive the war as a hooker with very important secrets to keep. Man-boy Tobey Maguire shows up early on as a military driver flush with money from his black market dealings but he didn't seem credible as the current lover of Lena. The IMDB claims that Blanchett studied Marlene Dietrich and Ingrid Bergman in order to play Lena, but we just don't gain enough insight into her character to want to care for her.

George Clooney's character also didn't have the depth of passion needed to inject fire into the strained relationship between the Captain and Lena.

Directed by Steven Soderbergh, who was nominated twice in 2000 for an Oscar for both Traffic and Erin Brockovich, and won Best Director for Traffic, this film was daring but ultimately not a triumph. He's had mixed success as a director, having arrived on the scene with 1989's Sex, Lies and Videotape. Solaris was another one of his films starring George Clooney but while I liked it, it wasn't well received. The two "Ocean" films starring Clooney and today's Brat Pack have also disappointed, but Soderbergh remains an unpredictable director, willing to take chances, and his films, by and large, do not resemble one another.

My rating for this film is 3 out of 5 stars.

Movie Review - Pan's Labyrinth

Triniman — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 10:11:48 EST

Pan's Labyrinth is from the bizarre and highly creative mind of Mexican director Guillermo del Toro. It finally arrived after much anticipation on my part since I first saw the movie poster featuring the grey alienish Pale Man, which eyes in his palms. This film is a fairytale for adults, although it may appear to be a horror film, and while it is not as visually arresting as a Harry Potter film, it can be seen to be full of allegory as it tries to tell two seemingly unrelated stories. However, I found it to be more thought-provoking than entertaining.

The first story is about a young girl and her pregnant mother who travel to a military outpost in the 1944 Spanish Civil War, to be with her step-father, a grim, cold and violent Captain in the army. The rebels are in the hills and the arrogant Captain insists that his wife give birth at the military post, because he believes a child should be born wherever the father is. There's nothing but subtle hostility between the Captain and his step-daughter. Fortunately, she forms a bond with her mother's lady-in-waiting.

En route, the mother's car stops in the middle of a forest and the young girl encounters a stick-figured insect who she imagines is a fairy.

At the fortress, the girl follows the fairy into the nearby ancient labyrinth which has a winding stone staircase that goes deep underground. In this dusty, gothic setting, she encounters another magical creature, a talking goat-like creature (Pan) who explains her role as a netherworld princess from long ago, essentially reincarnated. He hands the girl a book containing a series of tests to prove that she is still some magical princess and not a human. The Pan creature is frightening in appearance, looking not unlike the imagery satanic heavy metal bands use for their album covers.

The other frightening creature that you may have seen looks a bit like a naked, emancipated 6 ft tall alien with eyes that it places in the palms of its hands to see. It's a slayer of children and isn't really explained. When he walks around with his fingers splayed around his face, it's as if he is saying, "Peek-a-boo. I see you." I would have been interesting to see more of the Pale Man creature or learn about its beginning. Actor Doug Jones played the role of both creatures.

The war story and the fantasy story are not immediately inextricably linked to one other. If you think about it long enough, you can find ways, strong or weak, to justify in your mind the fantasy story informing the military story of good rebels, horse-back riding soldier bad guys and informants, and therein lies the film's fault or genius, depending on what you took away from the it. The rich visual styling and exotic creatures promised a more meaty fantasy story than what was delivered. The war story on it's own wasn't terribly compelling or original.

Unlike the constant sheen of eye-popping, overblown visuals employed by Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton, Guillermo del Toro will hopefully be known for his conservative, yet effective use of visual styling, rather thank his storytelling with this much talked about film.

My rating for Pan's Labyrinth is .

Movie Review: The Painted Veil (2007)

Triniman — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 14:20:33 EST

The Painted Veil (2007) is the third film version of the 1925 Somerset Maugham novel. It stars Naomi Watts and Ed Norton and deals with the colonial period in China.

Kitty (Naomi Watts), an aging socialite from the British upper-class community hooks up with a Doctor Fane (Ed Norton) who is in a rush to marry, and they head to Shanghai, China. She marries him to get away from her unbearable mother more than for true love.

In Shanghai, the marriage becomes boring and as they discover that they have little in common. She is caught having an affair with another Brit, Charlie Townsend (Liev Schreiber), the English Vice Consul, and is then faced with the prospect of either following her husband to a rural Chinese town ravaged by cholera or having him divorce her. The Vice Consul decides not to leave his wife. Crushed, Kitty follows her husband to the town where they both face danger. You wonder if Dr. Fane is hoping she catches cholera and dies as punishment for the affair. He all but ignores her, buried in his work to keep the cholera at bay, while she struggles to find meaningful ways to spend her time.

This film reminded me a bit of The English Patient (check out Ed Norton's hairstyle - blink and you'll swear he was Ralph Fiennes) and also The Sheltering Sky, a doomed desert expedition. Ed Norton was also one of film's producers, but truthfully, he wasn't great in the role. His performance wasn't as deep as it should have been and his character was very likable. Naomi Watts, co-producer, was well-cast as an aging socialite (38 yrs), but the rekindled romance between the two didn't gain much traction with me. Look for former "Bond girl" Diana Rigg as the Mother Superior, a role she was very good in. Apparently the film has been a project of Norton's for between six years and a decade. Director John Curran probably did the best with what he had, but unfortunately, Ed Norton should have stayed on the other side of the camera and opted for a different leading man.

My rating is .

Movie Review: Children of Men

Triniman — Sat, 6 Jan 2007 01:22:20 EST

Children of Men is directed by Alfonso Cuar�n, who also directed the Gwen Paltrow film Great Expectations, and the third Harry Potter film, The Prisoner of Azkaban, both of which I enjoyed. He also produced Pan's Labyrinth.

It's the year 2027 and women haven't been able to bear children for about 18 years, anywhere in the world. The world has suffered from widespread war, terrorism and civil unrest. In England, immigrants are rounded up and taken to prisoner camps as homeland security becomes a very big deal.

Former activist Theo Faron, played by Clive Owen, is contacted by an old flame (Julianne Moore) to help smuggle a pregnant woman (Kee, played by Claire-Hope Ashitey) across England to the coast, where a boat will take her across the ocean to a group known as the Human Project. We don't learn much about this group, but they will try to figure out how to make women fertile again. The pregnant woman is an immigrant from Fiji, which makes her a target to the police state cops and military, but almost no one knows about her pregnancy.

A terrorist group have Kee under protection at an isolated farm. Soon, the race to the coast is on, which soon turns into a chase. Michael Caine shows up a pot-smoking old hippie who provides shelter in his isolated homestead, which is protected from outsiders by a high-tech video surveillance system.

A refreshingly non-Hollywood slick, the film takes a while to get really interesting. Many of the scenes in this war-torn city look not unlike what we're used to seeing in the news from Palestine, complete with Moslems marching in funerals chanting "God is great" while toting machine guns. Some of the fire fights are well done with Theo dodging bullets as buildings fall down around him. Unlike what you saw in, say, the last James Bond film, there is far less of a choreographed feel to it all. It looks authentic.

I felt that the film was thought provoking but still could have been more interesting if it explained a few more details, like detailing more about the this mysterious Human Project. On the other hand, you could also relate to the pregnant woman more, with all the confusion and lack of information. You didn't get to know the "big picture" and neither did she or Theo.

The theatre was packed, but I don't think this will be a major hit since it is so bleak and deliberately vague. Definitely not for everyone. Based on the novel of the same name by P.D. James. For a book/film that slightly parallels this one, check out The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.

My rating for this film is 4/5.

[Editor's Note: Rohan Venkat's review of Children of Men is also available on Desicritics.]

2006 Hollywood and Independent Movies: An Overview

Triniman — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 00:45:38 EST

I saw 50 2006 movies this year, almost all of them in the theatre but fewer than in previous years.

Some films haven't opened in my area, like Letters From Iwo Jima, The Good German and Pan's Labyrinth. I just plain missed a few that looked interesting, like A Scanner Darkly. I didn't make it to see many independent films as I would have liked and missed 49 Up and Cache.

Overall, this wasn't a great year for new movies. Hollywood continued to overload films with special effects and really great stories were scarce. There were some films that seemed pointless, including Basic Instinct 2 and The Sentinel, which featured Keifer Sutherland playing a Jack Bauer-like role. The brilliantly directed The Departed surely has Martin Scorcese set to be nominated for a best director Oscar but winning that Oscar may not be a sure thing with that buzz that Clint Eastwood's companion to Flags of Our Fathers, Letters From Iwo Jima, is receiving.

The film that packed the most emotional punch for me was United 93, directed by Paul Greengrass, who directed the Bourne Supremacy and who will direct the Bourne Ultimatum (due August 3, 2007).

Movies with a rating of 5/5:

United 93 - the most gut wrenching film that I saw this year, even with the outcome known.

Movies with a rating of 4/5:

An Inconvenient Truth (documentary) - an Al Gore film that won't be seen by the naysayers.

The Break-Up - not a popular film but authentic.

Casino Royale - as I predicted, a refreshing and needed change to Bond.

The Departed - Scorcese's best chance to win the Best Director Oscar in years.

The Good Shepherd - cerebral story about the birth of the CIA; Bob DeNiro directs.

Miami Vice - raises the bar for shoot out action scenes.

Neil Young - Heart of Gold - near-flawless acoustic concert.

Transamerica - charming and funny.

Why We Fight (documentary) - will make you angry whether you agree or disagree with it.

Movies with a rating of 3.75/5:

Flags of our Fathers - not in the recent Eastwood tradition of excellence.

Movies with a rating of 3.5/5:

Apocalypto - excellent jungle action film.

Beowulf & Grendel - one of the oldest tales told without the sheen of Hollywood.

Kinky Boots - cute indie film from the UK.

The Lake House - decent tearjerker.

Little Miss Sunshine - a crowd pleaser that is hard to resist.

Lucky Number Slevin - you need to pay attention to get it.

World Trade Centre - not a conspiracy film from the biggest conspiracy director.

Movies with a rating of 3/5:

Blood Diamond - Di Caprio is intense but doesn't project as brilliantly as he tries.

The Holiday - charming, light-weight fare.

The Illusionist - the first of two magic films in 2006, but this one has more romance.

King Kong - long, heavy on special effects, but faithful retelling of the original.

Kiss, Kiss Bang, Bang - surprisingly good comedic detective story.

Mission: Impossible 3 - the fall of Tom Cruise's popularity began with this bloated excess.

The Nativity Story - poorly conceived and directed, could have been a bigger film.

The Omen - if you've seen the original, this one squanders a chance to be different.

A Prairie Home Companion - slow but apparently spot-on rendition of the radio show.

Scoop - an all right Woody Allen murder-comedy. Lacks edge but I liked it.

Superman Returns - a ridiculous story to feature the return of Supes.

Thank You For Smoking - not as biting as it could have been, but nice attempt.

Tsotsi - Oscar winner from South Africa is slow but has its rewards.

Movies with a rating of 2.75/5:

The Prestige - intriguing until the add what is essentially sci-fi/fantasy to the mix.

Movies with a rating of 2.5/5:

Assault on Precinct 13 - decent action film.

The Da Vinci Code - no chemistry between the two stars, lousy film for a lousy book.

The Inside Man - not as clever as it appears to be.

The Sentinel - tries to piggyback on the success of TV's 24 but fails with dumb story.

X-Men 3 -the worst of the trilogy, just a dumb story.

Movies with a rating of 2/5:

Basic Instinct 2 - should never have been made.

Borat - too much vulgarity and toilet humor. Could have been bigger.

Click - essentially a rip-off of It's A Wonderful Life, except much worse.

V for Vendetta - popular but as a subtle as a sledgehammer and boring as hell to me.

You, Me and Dupree (99 cent rental) - the "moving in" story is just a side-story.

Movies with a rating of 1/5:

Annapolis (99 cent rental) - a boxing film, not an interesting tribute to the fabled school.

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift - what was I thinking?

Firewall - Harrison Ford does his "leave my family alone" schtick but it's getting old.

Friends With Money (99 cent rental) - not a comedy I expected.

Last Holiday (99 cent rental) - she's got weeks to live but it's pure Hollywood crap.

The Matador - tries to be a satire of the macho spy that Pierce Brosnan has played, but fails miserably.

The Night Listener - creepy, creepy role with Toni Collete and Robin Williams.

The following films that I intend to see are supposed to open in 2007:

Pathfinder - April 27
Spiderman 3 - May 4
Shrek The Third - May 18
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - May 25
Harry Potter And The Order of The Phoenix - July 13
The Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer - July 4
The Simpsons Movie - July 27
The Bourne Ultimatum - Aug. 3

Movie Review: The Good Shepherd

Triniman — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 02:15:12 EST

Definitely not an action-packed CIA thriller on par with what we've seen from Matt Damon in the Bourne films or Daniel Craig in Casino Royale.

The film is essentially about one of the agents in the beginning stages of the OSS and then the follow up agency for non-wartime, the CIA.

Son of a high ranking Navy official, the Matt Damon character is recruited to join Skull & Bones in university. Shortly thereafter, he's approached to join an new government organization to go overseas and watch things, do some spying, as world tensions heat up. This is 1939. At a private island owned by Skull & Bones, replete with cottages, our hero is introduced to a fellow S&B member's gorgeous sister, "Clover" played by Angelina Jolie. She quickly takes a fancy to him and tries to seduce him, but even outright asks him if he has a problem with girls as he shows a lack of interest. Within moments, hormones take over and they get it on. There's no chemistry between them, however.

Meanwhile, he still has a girlfriend who he must either leave or stay with, upon finding out that his tryst with Clover has resulted in her pregnancy. Within a week of the marriage, he's off to Europe to work for the new wartime spy agency, but keeps his career a secret from Clover. His son grows up for 6 years without knowing his dad in person. Jr. grows up desperately trying to earn his dad's love while Clover finds herself in a loveless marriage.

There's a lot more to the film, including some very shifty Soviets, some of whom you have to be friends with rather than kill, for inside information.

They make very little attempt to age Matt Damon and Angelina the 21 years or so that pass in the film. Jr. grows up looking like a girly-man, which may have been a deliberate play on the stereotype that boys who grow up without fathers or strong male role models tend to have effeminate predispositions, although we see whether or not this is likely true as well.

Matt Damon's character also seems like a cork under pressure to explode but we never see it. The character could have been more exciting, but first time director Robert DeNiro clearly didn't want to go for an action hero type role in favour of something more brainy. He should have uncorked some of tension, however. The screenplay is by Eric Roth (Munich, The Insider, Forrest Gump.)

Definitely don't see this film unless you have patience for something that is overly long (2 hrs, 40 min), that lacks a fast pace. It's more of a cerebral exercise and for that reason, should do quite poorly among the masses.

My rating for The Good Shepherd is 4/5.