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All right, those who know me know I give Chris Columbus a lot of crap. He is definitely on my list of least favorite directors. However, that being said he did great things for the Harry Potter franchise – just not in terms of directing.

While the character of Harry Potter has not yet entrenched itself as wholly and globally as something like Superman (you’ll see kids in jungles with no technology wearing a Superman shirt) almost anyone can tell you the basic concept of the series; the secret world of wizards that coexists with our own and Harry is the main character against a villain that no one will name. At least that’s as basic as I’ve had it described to me by people who have never read the books or really paid attention to the movie. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is the first book/film in the series and chronicles Harry’s first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry and what begins to happen to Harry’s life when he starts to uncover the truth of his magical lineage.

Chris Columbus drives me nuts as a director because he somehow manages to insert no feeling or vibrancy into his work, he also doesn’t do background action well; Columbus is also a director that does not like the darker side of themes, but likes the cheery, easily explained side of life. All of this shows in The Sorcerer’s Stone. Though it is a good movie, it falls flat on many levels because of the directing. I remember seeing the movie for the first time (without having read the books) and thinking that I didn’t understand why Harry was important and why the Voldemort guy was so scary. All of that becomes the fault of the director.

What saves the entire Potter franchise and Columbus’s films is the fact that the man is a very good producer. I give him enormous kudos for being phenomenal at finding the right actors for the right part and for putting an excellent team of behind the scenes crew together. That is the reason the franchise works and the first two films are viewable. Columbus himself has less style and panache than even Brett Rattner, but he is saved by his skill at producing.

I must also give Columbus kudos for being the first director to bring Harry Potter off the page and into reality. While it is true that Harry’s world and ours overlap the magical world and all of its characters are entirely different than anything that has been seen onscreen before. Columbus had to invent how it would look to have living portraits, students that would fly on broomsticks in a game called quidditch, and even what it should look like to teach magic. He had to translate J.K. Rowling’s rules to screen without anything but some words on a page to guide him. I can tell you from experience how difficult translating words to images can be; writer’s don’t have to think about the physics of actually doing, they only have to put the words down and then float them off to the director who must now take those abstract words and make them reality. It’s tough, no matter how much special effects and CGI you have access to and it’s something you can’t quite fully understand unless you’ve done it yourself. I can’t imagine the pressure Columbus was under knowing that billions of fans were waiting to see their beloved world come to life.

In the end Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is still a good, but lack luster movie. If it were not the first in a franchise but instead a standalone film it would have been a entertaining but forgettable film; however, since it does have 7 other films to follow it Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone instead just feels like a slow start.

Director: Chris Columbus
Writer: Steve Kloves
Harry Potter: Daniel Radcliffe
Ron Weasley: Rupert Grint
Hermione Granger: Emma Watson
Professor Dumbledore: Richard Harris
Professor McGonagall: Maggie Smith
Hagrid: Robbie Coltrane
Aunt Petunia: Fiona Shaw
Dudley: Harry Melling
Uncle Vernon: Richard Griffiths
Professor Quirrell: Ian hart
Molly Weasley: Julie Walters
Percy Weasley: Chris Rankin
Fred Weasley: James Phelps
George Weasley: Oliver Phelps
Neville Longbottom: Matthew Lewis
Draco Malfoy: Tom Felton
Nearly Headless Nick: John Cleese
Professor Snape: Alan Rickman

Ron: It's spooky! She knows more about you than you do!
Harry: Who doesn't?

So I really, really do love Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. It is a very strange movie, but I love it so. I think that if you can get past the nearly absurd concept of the plot and just hang in there for more than twenty minutes that anyone can enjoy this movie.

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang is written by Sane Black who a true buddy cop film lover will know is the same man that wrote Lethal Weapon. The man is considered a pioneering screenwriter and Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang was his directorial debut. Having watched this movie over and over again I will again say that I really wish that Shane Black would step up to the director’s chair again and give me another movie. I think he has the potential to be one of the writer/director powerhouses that can really make his mark in the industry.

Watching Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang also reminds me of how much I do love Val Kilmer. The man may be crazy but he is a dang good actor. The man is currently voicing K.I.T.T. on the new (but soon to be if not already canceled) version of Knight Rider. He needs to stop that and get back to serious acting. From Doc Holliday to Gay Perry Val is one of the few actors who can genuinely disappear into a role and bring something special to the film – that’s the reason crazy as he is that people keep working with him. You work with Val and he becomes your character instead of just embodying the character.

I know it seems like I am on an insane Robert Downey Jr/comic book/holiday movie kick but I swear I am not. My mini-Robert Downey Jr. steak in the last few films was completely unintentional. I swear.

Perry: You don't get it, do you? This isn't "good cop, bad cop." This is fag and New Yorker. You're in a lot of trouble.

I remember reading reviews for Home for the Holidays that were pretty lack luster, admonishing the film for being too cynical & in bad taste, but in 1995 when the film came out I did not have a knowledge of film, or criticism that would have allowed me a desire to see the film or rebuff the critics. However, now that I have seen Home for the Holidays I can say that I can and will rebuke the critics of this film, especially the ones that call it too cynical and dark, one reviewer even chastised the film for being cynical and dark without meaning too be. Home for the Holidays is a cynical, darkly comedic film about what happens when you as an adult get together with your family for a holiday – the darkness and the cynicism is intended to underscore the fact that these individuals you grew up with can become complete and total strangers to you, or perhaps always were but only time & distance can bring this out in your relationship. However, what most of the critics ignored is the underlying bond and love that is the ultimate point woven into this film by director Jodie Foster.

Home for the Holidays has the most basic plot you can imagine. Claudia Larson is having a terrible week, she was just fired from her job restoring art because they lost their funding, she “accidently” made out with her boss, her daughter Kitt just dropped on her that she plans to lose her virginity and on top of that she has to go home to visit her parents for Thanksgiving without her daughter or her little brother Tommy there to help her. Distraught Claudia calls Tommy and leaves a tearful message on his machine wishing him and his partner Jack a happy Thanksgiving but unthinkingly telling him she really needs him at her parents house this year. Claudia arrives home to the exact awkwardness she expects from her too affectionate/observant parents and is surprised in the middle of the night when Tommy arrives to spend Thanksgiving with the family claiming he never got Claudia’s message, and bringing not Jack but co-worker Leo Fish in tow. The holiday unfolds with Tommy being his wacky self, their prim sister Joanne obsessing over everything and insulting Tommy at every turn, and senile aunt Gladys bringing up the past.

In an odd way I liked Home for the Holidays because the relationship between Claudia and Tommy reminds me of what I think the relationship between my little brother and I is like. If one or the other of us were in a situation where we genuinely needed the other person to be there we would do it – and this is Tommy and Claudia. Of all the members of the Larson family these are the two that love each other as unconditionally as everyone says you are supposed to love your family and it shows in their relationship. Both Tommy and Claudia are there for one another whenever the other needs them and defend each other from the craziness of the rest of the family. As much as we all love our families most of us know that our family members are also the people that can hurt us the most because they know us so well.

Claudia is falling apart because so much has happened to her in such a short, stressful period of time and the one she reaches out to is Tommy. Her well meaning family does nothing but make her feel worse until Tommy arrives. Tommy resists telling her at first that he came home because he got her message, but through a series of events it is revealed that Tommy not only got Claudia’s message but decided to leave Jack and their friends for Thanksgiving to be there for Claudia knowing that it was not going to be a pleasant experience for him to spend the time with his family. Without thought for himself Tommy came to Claudia to be the buffer that she needed him to be.

Tommy himself is very similar to Claudia but his greatest trait within the family is his over exuberance in any situation, Tommy does not blend in nor does he want to and he always puts on a brave face, something only Claudia can see through. Though it is alluded to for awhile that their sister Joanne does not like Tommy it seems that her distaste only stems from the fact that Tommy is loud & boisterous and she is all about being neat and orderly. However, an accident occurs at the Thanksgiving table & Joanne releases her full fury on her brother revealing that her true distaste for him stems from his lifestyle not his wacky behavior. Though Tommy claims none of this bothers him, later alone in the kitchen where Claudia & Tommy finish their Thanksgiving dinner the brother and sister share an embrace that gets to the real soul of their relationship.

I think that Home for the Holidays was not necessarily well received because the audience does not want a holiday movie that is going to point out the flaws of the holiday or of our families, but they want a holiday movie that is going to be light, sweet and fluffy – but that is not what Home for the Holidays is and it shouldn’t be judged by the same scale. This movie is not Miracle on 34th Street and should not be entered with such a mindset. However, as with some of the more off beat, dramatic American films I do get the feeling that if this film wasn’t an American film but instead something from another country Home for the Holidays would be lauded as a fresh look at the reality of American holidays but instead the critics didn’t know what to think of it.

Director: Jodie Foster
Writer: W.D. Richter
Claudia Larson: Holly Hunter
Tommy Larson: Robert Downey Jr.
Adele Larson: Anne Bancroft
Henry Larson: Charles Durning
Leo Fish: Dylan McDermott
Aunt Gladys: Geraldine Chaplin
Walter Wedman: Steve Guttenberg
Joanne Larson Wedman: Cynthia Stevenson
Kitt Larson: Claire Danes

Claudia: You don't know the first thing about me.
Joanne: Likewise, I'm sure. If I just met you on the street... if you gave me your phone number... I'd throw it away.
Claudia: Well, we don't have to like each other, Jo. We're family.

Iron Man. I really think this is up there with Batman Begins as the movies in my collection I’ll just pull out and pop on whenever I just want something to watch. In my opinion Iron Man is everything a good “popcorn movie” should aspire to be. Instead of being brainless, pointless drivel a good “popcorn movie” should be fun and entertaining but still manage to have a brain. I can turn Iron Man on and pay attention and be deeply entertained or simply watch with a limited attention span and it’s still very entertaining.

I am very intrigued to continue to see how the success of Iron Man is going to affect the careers of Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau.

Christine Everheart: You've been called the DaVinci of our time. What do you say to that?
Tony Stark: Absolutely ridiculous. I don't paint.
Christine Everheart: And what do you say to your other nickname, the Merchant of Death?
Tony Stark: That's not bad.

What I am about to say will upset comic book geeks everywhere.

Bryan Singer needs to stop making comic book movies.

That’s right. I am calling Bryan Singer out to stop jumping on board with the likes of X-Men and Superman Returns and keep up with what he does best – movies about bad guys and characters in impossible situations – movies like The Usual Suspects and Valkyrie.

I have been waiting for Valkryie with baited breath for over a year because it is made by the team that made my favorite film The Usual Suspects - Singer and Christopher McQuarrie. However, the film was bounced around like a ping pong ball and rumors were flying about it to the point that I was fully prepared to hate the film, but I have a soft spot for Singer and had to give it the benefit of a doubt and so I saw it as soon as possible after Christmas was done.

To begin my review I feel that I need to begin with what the audience and the studio believes are the flaws of the film: the lack of the German language, Nazi’s as protagonists and Tom Cruise.

I was one of the many people that was upset that Valkyrie very obviously ignored the use of German in the film and instead gave all of the character American accents. In a day and age where we can make humans fly on broomsticks in a magical game called quidditch it seems fitting that a group of actors playing characters based on real Germans should at least fake an accent if they can’t fake the language. I will be the first to admit that I was wrong. I thought the lack of a German “feel” to the language was going to drive me insane as I watched the film – but it didn’t. In fact the way Singer manages to get around the use of the language points out how incredibly strange it would have been to watch the entire film with such familiar multi-national actors speaking a language not at all similar to their own, and for the sticklers German writing is all over the film and in the beginning of the film Tom Cruise actually does do a voice over in German and that slowly fades into English – the opening credits are even done in German and English.

The largest obstacle to the plot of the film and to the studio being able to market Valkyrie is the mere fact that all of the characters are Germans in World War II, all fighting for mother Germany. Almost everyone around the world has been universally brought up to believe that all German’s of that era were Nazi’s, evil to the core and Hitler’s minions. This subconscious thinking is inescapable to the studio, and yet something that must be faced because this story is real. You cannot substitute G.I.’s in place of Germans – this is a remarkable true story of a group of German soldiers and politicians who say Hitler for the evil he was and were bold and brave enough to try and do something to stop it. The other giant obstacle that studio faces in this film, and what Singer and McQuarrie faced is the fact that if you’ve been alive in the past handful of decades you know that Hitler lived until the end of the war and was only killed when he committed suicide – in other words the characters in Valkyrie are defeated and anyone paying attention to the concept of the film knows this going in. It is incredibly hard to make a film where you audience already knows the ending but somehow Singer and McQuarrie manage to still create tension and empathy where none should exist. That is a skill that cannot be taught and must be viewed by anyone who appreciates great efforts in filmmaking.

Finally, the last and what some might argue to be the biggest obstacle in Valkyrie’s path is Tom Cruise. While Cruise was once the biggest movie star in the world his ego and eccentricies got the better of his public image in the past five or so years and his star has gotten more and more tarnished. Luckily, Cruise has finally figured out that he needs to stop touting what no one wants to hear and start being the movie star we all used to love. He started this with Tropic Thunder and the buzz was so great around him for that film that the studio finally dared release Valkyrie at a time that would help it instead of hinder it.

Don’t let the image Cruise has created in the media recently get in the way of your opinion of the acting. Remember that this is the man nominated for Oscars for multiple films, and a man that should have won one for his performance in Magnolia - Cruise is capable of being more than you think he can be. In Valkyrie Cruise once again returns to dramatic acting and he is fabulous. While I do not think that Valkyrie is his best role it is an amazing, conflicted character that he plays and he plays it expertly. Stauffenberg was a man torn between his love for his country and the oath he swore to a man he hated and Cruise pulls that off in a way that makes you wish this German soldier had been able to succeed in a treasonous act.

While this review may have rambled on for far too long it still cannot express accurately how much I loved and was enthralled with Valkyrie. While I no longer hold hope that this movie will get the critical acclaim it deserves, I can hope that at least the film will reach DVD before too long and gain the large following it deserves. I hope that Singer and Cruise take a note from Valkyrie and each return to the roots of their careers and do what they do so well.

Director: Bryan Singer
Writer: Christopher McQuarrie & Nathan Alexander
Colonel Stauffenberg: Tom Cruise
Major-General Tresckow: Kenneth Branagh
General Olbricht: Bill Nighy
General Fromm: Tom Wilkinson
Nina von Stauffenberg: Carice van Houten
Major Remer: Thomas Kretschmann
Ludwig Beck: Terence Stamp
General Fellgiebel: Eddie Izzard
Dr. Goerdeler: Kevin McNally
Colonel Quirnheim: Christian Berkel
Hitler: David Bamber
Colonel Brandt: Tom Hollander

Henning von Tresckow: We have to show the world that not all of us are like him. Otherwise, this will always be Hitler's Germany.

From Russia With Love is one of the Bond movies that I’ve never seen. It’s an early Bond film from before the gadgets, explosions and Bond girls got in the way of Bond. It’s a Bond film that really shows you why exactly Bond is the spy he was built up to be in fiction, why Connery is considered the best Bond to this day, and contrasts sharply with the Bond films of the past two decades and is a sharp reminder of why exactly is was necessary to scale Bond back to a movie more about the spy than the spies trappings – in essence why it was necessary for Craig et all to take Bond back to what everyone is calling a rip off of Bourne. Let me tell you this – the new Bond films are not imitating Bourne, they are emulating their predecessors.

Unlike the later Bond films From Russia With Love is a genuine spy movie, very convoluted in detail yet pretty perfectly worked out. Unlike a lot of other Bond movies what makes From Russia With Love unique is the self-awareness it possesses so early in the series – the villains want Bond out of the way permanently and they try to accomplish this by seeking a femme fatale on Bond knowing that he will be unable to resist a tempting and willing woman. What follows is a complicated plot that has Bond questioning everyone that surrounds him, falling for a woman that he knows he can’t trust, and trying harder than anything to foray through the foreign spy game of Turkey & Russia to win the game for England.

An early bond film cannot be discussed without discussing Sean Connery. While Connery is audibly Scottish, the bravado and charm he exudes as Bond makes it obvious that he is Bond body and soul. From the dashing smile to his ability to wrestle with a foe you never doubt Bond is anything but lethal, an opponent who is always several steps ahead of his enemy but waiting for them to make a move that will expose their entire charade and leave him the victor.

While I wholeheartedly feel that I need to see this movie again to really follow and appreciate it, I cannot recommend From Russia With Love enough to any Bond fan that hasn’t seen it or to anyone who wonders why the Bond franchise has been around for over twenty films.

Director: Terence Young
Writer: Richard Maibaum
James Bond: Sean Connery
M: Bernard Lee
Moneypenny: Lois Maxwell
Red Grant: Robert Shaw
Tatiana Romanova: Daniela Bianchi
Rosa Klebb: Lotte Lenya

Donald "Red" Grant: Is any of the opposition around?
James Bond: Not in any condition to be worried about.

The more I watch Elf the more I realize how much I genuinely love this movie. I really think it is one of my favorite Christmas movies ever made. As integral a part as Will Ferrell, James Caan and the rest of the cast is to the magic that makes Elf I truly believe that Jon Favreau is the glue that makes Elf work.

After the disappointment that was Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull I was astounded to realize that Jon Favreau did with Iron Man what I expected Spielberg to do with Indiana Jones - Favreau made a Spielberg-esque film that delighted and enraptured on every level and brought you into the characters so that you identified with them all. Iron Man reminded me of something I never realized before; Jon Favreau is a damn good director. Looking back at Elf I would venture to say that he is one of the best directors of his generation.

You may want to disagree with me saying this about Favreau but you need to stop and look at the evidence. The mark of a good director is very obvious traits that should appear very subtlety because they need to fit the film the director is composing – compare a good film to a bad film and you will see it – you may not be able to identify it but you will be able to tell there is a difference. That difference is the hand and mind of a good director. A good director will have a beautiful film where the visuals fit the world they are trying to create, every shot works to build pieces of the puzzle and more than anything a good director draws you into the story and the characters in such a way that the two are indelibly connected and you empathize with the characters and want to watch them on their plight.

Elf like Iron Man has all of this and the common trait between the two films is the man at the helm – Jon Favreau. If Elf was handled by a different director it would have been an entirely different film. Chris Columbus for example would have been static in his shots, used little to no background action except where absolutely necessary and in the end you would have walked away laughing at Ferrell and not remembering much else about the film; if someone like Tyler Perry had directed Elf the jokes would have been heavy handed, the look of the film far too exuberant and characters would have paused at the end of jokes waiting for reactions.

The point is that while a good director doesn’t want to be noticed, once you start paying attention you should be able to see the marks of a good director all over their film. Jon Favreau is a good director and because of his handling of Elf his film has been added to the Christmas must-see list of countless fans world wide.

Buddy: Did you have to borrow a reindeer to get down here?
Miles Finch: Hey, jackweed, I get more action in a week than you've had in your entire life. I've got houses in L.A., Paris and Vail. In each one, a 70 inch plasma screen. So I suggest you wipe that stupid smile off your face before I come over there and SMACK it off! You feeling strong, my friend? Call me elf one more time.
Buddy:He's an angry elf.

Again I watched National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. It’s a Christmas movie and people wanted to watch it on Christmas day, what can I say? Watching this movie again so soon after I last saw it made me appreciate the yuppie neighbors that live next to the Griswold family – Todd and Margo.

While the Griswold’s have their faults and would undoubtedly be annoying to live next to Todd and Margo are equally annoying in a while different way. Todd and Marge are the yuppie perfectionist couple that you have to hate. From their matching work out clothes to ultra modern CD player and tasteful lack of a Christmas tree Tood and Margo are the kind of couple who wouldn’t have a dog because it might track dirt into the house. They detest living next to someone so loud, disorganized and utterly un-modern as Clark Griswold. The comic disdain that drips from Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Nicholas Guest as this couple is perfectly overstated and bring the perfect contrast to Clark and Ellen Griswold.

While I really don’t need to watch this movie again until at least next December I do still like this movie. However, I do think it is a film that if I watch it too many times too close together the charm will wear off and I will simply be annoyed by Clarks oh-so-clumsy antics. As much as I like Chevy Chase he is no Dick Van Dyke.

Margo: I hope he falls and breaks his neck.
Todd: Oh, I'm sure he'll fall. But I don't think we're lucky enough for him to break his neck.

I rented Fred Claus because I wanted to see Vince Vaughn playing with some elves, I really didn’t intend to like it – but I did. I really, really did. Much more than I should like a silly Christmas movie that is all surface and fun. However, it’s in that layer of gloss and frivolity that an entertaining and enjoyable comedy waits, you just have to accept the Christmas roots and mythology that is set up in the film and if you can do that you are good to go.

The precise reason Fred Claus is so enjoyable is because it’s about the mythology behind Christmas, but it is not about Santa Claus, it’s about his older brother Fred and “naughty” children everywhere, because you see by growing up with Nicholas his saintly younger brother Fred became bitter at being overshadowed and thus became naughty himself. Fred is the black sheep, the dirty laundry that the Claus institution cannot afford to air. However, being an actual saint Nicholas has a soft spot for Fred and when Fred calls on Nick for a helping hand Nick offers him a job at the North Pole – this turns out to be the worst timing possible for Nick as Clyde an efficiency expert arrives at the North Pole and threatens to shut Santa down if he can’t meet the impossible goals Clyde sets for him.

I will admit freely that my enjoyment of Fred Claus was partially guaranteed by having Kevin Spacey cast as the villain. My enjoyment of the film was cemented once it was revealed that the final important plot device of the film was a Superman cape and Kevin Spacey declaring that he wore his glasses because Clark Kent wore glasses. David Dobkin and screenwriters thus put two of my favorite things (Spacey & Superman) on screen together and it’s like a disease – part of me is going to love it no matter what (don’t even get me started on my conflicted feeling and constantly changing opinions on Superman Returns).

This film would be nothing though without the believable relationship between Giamatti and Vaughn as Nick and Fred; perhaps I can identify with Fred because I am a middle child who on some level always feels a little upstaged by the siblings on both sides of me, but I felt that Fred and Nick genuinely had a loving, yet conflicting relationship that sums up so perfectly what so many siblings face when they love each other but can’t manage to each exist without somehow injuring the other. Granted this is pumped up in the world of fantasy, but the underpinnings are very real to anyone that has a close sibling.

All in all, Fred Claus is not the holiday classic that Elf is but it is by no means a stupid holiday movie. I quite enjoyed it and I think many other movie goers would as well.

Director: David Dobkin
Writer: Dan Fogleman
Fred Claus: Vince Vaughn
Nick (Santa) Claus: Paul Giamatti
Willie: John Michael Higgins
Annette Claus: Miranda Richardson
Wanda: Rachel Weisz
Mother Claus: Kathy Bates
Charlene: Elizabeth Banks
Clyde Northcut: Kevin Spacey
Slam: Bobb’e J Thompson

Nick 'Santa' Claus: I never realized. You hate me.
Fred Claus: I don't hate you, Nick. I just wish you'd never been born.