The Good Shepherd (2006)

Date watched: December 22

Review: Robert De Niro's second film is a success. He doesn't triumph over his original film, A Bronx Tale. Not a single actor in the whole movie was mis-casted. Matt Damon was scary good. It was nice to see Joe Pesci back in action. The movie itself was completely boring, but everything else was near perfection. The camera angles, oh man, the camera angles!

Rating: 8.2/10.0

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Date watched: December 21

Review: The movie starts off experty, introducing many eccentric characters. The character arcs are easy to predict. Some of the jokes were easy to predict, because of plot devices such as the car they had to use to get to California. That didn't really take away from the funny factor though. It was nice seeing Steve Carell in a more serious role. Surprisingly Toni Collette was my favorite person in the movie, even though she was the most normal. The movie was fairly funny with a lot of serious parts, which I usually don't like. The ending was so ridiculous that I couldn't stop laughing.

Rating: 8.1/10.0

Hotel Rwanda (2004)

Date watched: December 18

Review: Once again, not sure if this is historically accurate, but I can tell that the mood was captured. How else could you deal with such a tragedy? Don Cheadle's performance was very good, but I expected more for a nomination. For a highly praised movie, I would have expected less action than the movie had.

Rating: 8.0/10.0

Kingdom of Heaven (2005)

Date watched: December 16

Review: While being bored by the movie, Orlando Bloom pushed me further from the enjoyment of what could have been a great movie. Being a big fan of historical movies, though usually not accurate, (e.g. Braveheart and Gladiator) I was expecting much out of this movie. The story was barely followable because of the lack of attention I could put into watching it.

Rating: 6.8/10.0

King Kong (2005)

Date watched: December 15

Review: What a brilliant movie. Peter Jackson's direction was amazing. The story was great. The acting from Naomi Watts, Jack Black, and Adrien Brody was spectacular. That is, for the first thirty minutes of the movie at least. After that, the whole movie turns into an annoying special effects action fest. The characters became very unbelievable because of who they were before they reached the island. It wasn't just the special effects that ruined the movie, it was the lack of story. The empathy between Kong and Ann was done horribly. Peter Jackson had me with Lord of the Rings, but he failed miserably with this film.

Rating: 6.6/10.0

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)

Date watched: December 13

Review: Will Ferrell plays his usual character, a crazy nut job who eventually calms down a little in the end. John C. Reilly(Gangs of New York) is a great actor, and helps this film out some. Though the shake and bake bit was annoying. The children and father of Will Ferrell's character made this movie enjoyable. Overall, it is just an okay comedy.

Rating: 7.5/10.0