Every great film should feel new every time you see it.
~ Roger Ebert ~
My first attempt at watching something more than 30 minutes long was the movie Thank You for Smoking. I had read the book the movie was based on a few years ago and found its hard-edged witty cynicism very entertaining. The movie, however, well, bleh. It was bland and didn’t really end, just sort of stopped. Aaron Eckhardt seemed a good choice for the lead, but turned out to be way too soft and forgiving for the role. Rob Lowe’s cameo as a kimono-wearing super-agent was terrific, but his few minutes on-screen did not make suffering through this film worthwhile.

Yesterday I ventured out the theater to see Children of Men with Clive Owen, Julianne Moore (briefly), and Michael Caine (perfectly cast as an ancient hippy). The apocalypse has come in the form of humanity being unable to reproduce any longer, with the youngest human now 18 years old. London is squalid and filthy and teeming with illegal aliens confined to streetside cages before being deported to what is, presumably, a far worse environment. This is not the shiny future of The Minority Report, but rather a far darker, dirtier Blade Runner. Clive Owen stumbles into the role of shepherding a young woman to safety who is inexplicably pregnant. There will be the inevitable comparisons to the Christ story, but this version allows you to construct the ending for yourself.