Good Night and Good Luck:

Well acted, well written, and well directed. The movie assumes that you know a little bit about the McCarthy era witch hunts, but the movie also gives periodic refreshers as to what was going on. David Strathairn was brilliant and I fully expect him to receive an Academy Award nomination. The movie has a very documentarian feel. It kind of just drops you into the situation and assumes that its audience is intelligent (refreshing). Because of its documentarian feel and reliance on the actual words of Edward R. Murrow, the movie can feel a bit speechified at points, but not enough for me to knock it too much. Easily one of the best movies I've seen this year.

The Weather Man

Nicolas Cage always has a hard time playing the everyman. He's a really good actor, but sometimes he Cage-ifies his performance a bit too much to be totally believable as Joe Schmoe. As with all Gore Verbinski movies, the cinematography was top notch. Michael Caine was good but wasn't given too much to do in the movie. The movie at times feels a bit incomplete; as if they could have used one or two more rewrites of the script. I had a hard time following people's motivations in the movie. Sometimes it was really obvious why people acted as they did, other times I had to dissect the movie as I watched it.

matt out