The First Wives Club (1996)

This was not high on my list of movies to see, and I didn't actually care for the vengeful theme of the plot (never actually been much for "it's not revenge, it's justice!" idea). This movie was saved not by the plot or dialogue, but by the characters, all clearly defined and all surprisingly believable for a fluffy comedy. And because they were believable, I genuinely cared about what happened to them. 3.5 stars.

Jerry Maguire (1996)

Anna had been recommending this to me for ages, and I finally got a chance to see it on TV. It worked surprisingly well. I'm not a huge Tom Cruise fan, but his character was likeable here despite having some major flaws. Renee Zellweger is nearly always likeable. The kid was amazingly cute for being not all that realistic. The spiel at the end was so sappy and so silly romantic drama... but somehow it worked. All the elements came together to make rather a very good movie. Not sure I'd purchase it, but I'd definitely recommend it to others. (And as an aside, am I getting less cynical or am I just seeing better romantic movies these days? Hmm.) 4 stars.

Eight Below (2006)

What do you rate a movie that you personally really hate the genre for but it's well done as its actual genre? That's my conundrum with this movie. My mom's whole family loved it and cried through the whole thing, and I suppose as far as animal survival movies go, it's very well done. And huskies are beautiful animals anyway. But if you're not a lover of dogs, or snow, or if you get cold easily, don't bother watching the movie. I had to go and get a sweatshirt and a blanket while watching this in Florida because just seeing people get frostbite made me start shivering. 2 stars.

Being John Malkovich (1999)

Hmm... Hmm, hmm, hmm. I watched Adaptation and loved it except for the end. I watched this and loved select portions of it, but the rest made me go, "Um... okay." Charlie Kaufman, the writer, has so many moments of brilliance, writes some incredibly funny stuff, and no one could ever accuse him of being unoriginal, but there are far too many moments when his plot degenerates into something that doesn't quite live up to previous expectations. 3 stars.

An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)

Hmm. War training movie romantic comedy? No, that doesn't sound like my type of movie, does it? And it really wasn't. It started out interesting but then got very disjointed and wandered all over the place. Couldn't decide on a sensible balance between the two genres, mostly. Plus, you can't really take any movie ALL that seriously when it includes a guy in a Navy uniform yelling, "I don't want you to love me! I don't want anyone to love me! I just want out!" 2 stars.

Cabaret (1972)

I saw a production of this at my local community college last year, and was blown away by the music and the story and determined to see the movie. The first and last ten minutes of the movie lived up to my hopes and expectations, but the rest of it wasn't even close. The play spent a lot of time portraying the thoughts and fears coming out of the political situation of the time. It was chilling, haunting, horrifying to see characters we'd really cared about developing such clear hate toward other characters - just because of their Jewish heritage. The movie lost that entire aspect of the story. There were almost no political aspects, just a focus on the characters of Sally and Brian (named Cliff in the play). Nearly all the depth of the story was lost. A real disappointment. 2.5 stars.

Fever Pitch (2005)

Okay, so I'm not a fan of romantic comedies, Drew Barrymore, Jimmy Fallon, or baseball. So there's no reason for me to have seen this? Not entirely true. The book was written by Nick Hornby, author of "A Long Way Down," "High Fidelity," and "About a Boy," all of which are marvelous stories. So I watched this in the hopes that the good storytelling would save the movie. It saved it from being utter blah, but didn't make it stand out in anyway. Don't forget, there's still the very bland Drew Barrymore and the very consciously acting Jimmy Fallon to recover from... and while it recovered, it didn't recover ENOUGH to make it a memorable movie. Passable, sure, but not memorable. 2.5 stars.