Holiday Movie Reviews #1

While I was up in Boston I started playing catch up at the movies.

First up - The Holiday, starring Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jude Law and Jack Black. Even though it's this years mandatory holiday chick flick, I really enjoyed this one. Basically, it's the story of 2 women who are having man trouble and decide to go on holiday to escape it, switching houses for a week. Of course once they switch, they each meet another man who gives them a whole new set of issues to deal with. The acting in this was pretty top notch. As usual, I loved Kate. Jude is starting to grow on me and his character here is very endearing. Jack Black surprised me - he was great and a bit endearing as well (I'm definitely looking forward to checking him out in Nacho Libre). Poor Cammy though - the rest of the cast sort of ate her alive. She wasn't bad - but she wasn't that good either. I had a bit of trouble believing her. At times this movie seemed a bit long, but then again it is basically 2 full separate stories. I really didn't find much that I felt could've been cut out to shorter it - in fact just the contrary, I found myself wanting a bit more. If you're up for a little holiday lovey-dovey, I say check with one out!

Next up was one off of my list of Golden Globe must-sees - Borat: Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. I went into this one expecting a lot due to friend's rave reviews as well as Jerry Seinfeld's recommendation saying it was one of the funniest movies ever made. Nice try Jerry. It was good - but not that good. Did I laugh - yes. Did I feel like I had seen a lot of the jokes before - yes and yes. I, like everyone else who has seen it, did enjoy the few scenes that are not in the previews since they are WAY TOO RACEY! SERIOUSLY SCANDALOUS! (For some reason the day I went the audience was filled with a lot of elderly people - I can only imagine what they were thinking!) Overall, I think Sascha Baron Cohen is great - I have since I first saw a DVD of his show years ago at Suz's flat in London before he crossed the pond via Madge. Sadly, though, I don't think that any of the characters he plays really show enough depth to warrant an entire movie. In the end, Borat is definitely not worth the price of a NY admission (especially with a running time of a mere 84 minutes). If you're still lingering for the holidays in some small enclave that has 1/2 price matinees at the local theater though, then maybe (just maybe) it's worth checking out. In the end, it ain't all that bad!