we went to the $2 movie theater and saw two movies this weekend. Before I get to the movies, let me say a few words about the $2 theater as this seems to intrigue and or disturb some people. We now go almost exclusively to the discount theater near our home. This theater offers mostly second run theatrical releases. These films are no longer playing in most of the mainstream theaters but are still not released on dvd. We enjoy this theater for the following reasons:

1) a $2 movie has a much lower hurdle to clear before being considered entertaining. Just because a film has subterranean bat/orangutan mutant monsters doesn't rule it out as entertainment. If not for the $2 theater I would have had to wait weeks for Deuce Bigalow European Gigilo to come to basic cable.
2) it's kind of fun to yell at the kids having conversations in the middle of the movie.

1000 Red Eye

Tagline: Fear Takes Flight

This weekend we saw Red eye with Cillian Murphy, who I had always thought was Callian Murphy. I must admit to feeling a little betrayed when I saw C-i-llian in the opening credits. When I got home, however; I checked several websites and everyone of them had Cillian. I still think that he's up to something mind you but I have no proof. Cilly of me, I guess. Many of you may know him from smaller roles in Cold Mountain and Girl with the Pearl Earing or from Batman Begins where he was creepier without his scarecrow mask then with it. But if your a fan of the horror genre, you probably first encountered him in the instant zombie classic 28 Days Later(we will cover this film in detail later after I get a few more keystrokes under my belt).

Murphy is also creepy(as the director and producers clearly intended) in Red Eye . This is partly the result of good acting instincts and choices and partly due to the fact that he is so damned androgynous that he makes David Bowie look butch. The other major character is Rachel McAdams who has risen to semi it-girl status with roles in Mean Girls, The Notebook and this summer's suprise smash the Wedding Crashers. She does compentent work as just the kind of girl that you want to see a creepy terrorist take an interest in.

All in all , the film manages to be both mundane and melodramatic at the same time, but I expect better work for it's two stars in the not distant future.

tidbits- the film was produced for and estimated $25 million dollars and made about twice that in the US alone: $57,859,105 (USA) (9 October 2005). It was originally written for Sean and Robin Wright Penn but the Director, Wes Craven, "opted for younger actors"(who needs all those oscars cluttering up the set)

999 War of the Worlds (2005)

Tagline: They're already here.

The latest Speilburg/Dreamworks/Cruise megapic was our second pick this weekend(2 pictures for 2 bucks, pretty good.). Tom Cruise puts in a solid performance with nary a smirk, which at one time would have been a mild upset, but after a string of good work in Minority Report, Last Samurai and Magnolia may be further evidence of Cruise's growing maturity as an actor if not necessarily as a person. Also ranging from good to mildly annoying are in order Miranda Otto, Justin Chatwin and Tim Robbins. As for Dakota Fanning, she sure does scream alot.
Speilburg has covered this genre from stem to stern and he covers little fresh ground here. The effects are exactly what you have come to expect from Dreamworks, although some bring to mind AI( which would be overated if anyone liked it) The majority of the grumbling from fans seems to be aimed at the ending of the film and should in a fair world be address to Mr. Wells and not Mr. Speilburg as this is a fairly faithful adaption of the classic novel.

tidbits-
The film was produced for an estimated $132,000,000 and grossed and estimated 233,846,752 (USA) (16 October 2005 in the US.