Watching a bunch of movies over the holidays

This weekend I've seen three movies...

1) Stepbrothers w/Will Ferrell. Absolutely filthy, but in a hilarious way. Not as good as Talladegha Nights, but still very funny.

2) Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Its from the same group of people who did Superbad & Knocked Up.No where near as funny as those two movies.More of a romantic comedy. I actually thought the real revelation in the film was Mila Kunis (who most know from That 70's Show and as the voice of Meg Griffin on Family Guy). I thought she was really, really good.

3) The Ox-Bow Incident. Absolutely fantastic.***** A terrific character study and look at the effects of mob violence and rush-to-judgement.

4) Run, Fatboy Run--very cute British romantic comedy featuring Simon Pegg, who was so good in Shaun of the Dead & Hot Fuzz. Here he plays a guy who has run (literally) from responsibility his entire life but decides to enter a marathon as a way of proving himself to his family and friends. Not everyone believes he can do it. Also starring Thandie Newton & Hank Azaria, who is very good as his ex-girlfriend's smarmy new fiancee. ***

5) A Christmas Story--well of course I watched it again. Its Christmas!! How can you NOT watch the classic film set in the late 40's in Indiana about little Ralphie and his desperate attempts to get Santa to bring him a b.b. gun? CLASSIC *****

6) Love Actually--one of my new holiday favorites, this British film stars the likes of Hugh Grant, Keira Knightley (luminous), Alan Rickman, Colin Firth & Emma Thompson. Its about the lives of a group of seemingly unrelated people in London in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
Very funny & romantic and a terrific soundtrack to boot. ****1/2

7) Dark Command--so how does this classic John Wayne western manage to find its way onto the list? I'll tell ya how. It starts with a little post-Christmas treat for my dogs and then a 3:30am wakeup call when nature calls---one of the dogs that is. So then I sit up for 2 hours waiting for (no pun intended) all things to pass and I check out TCM to see what's on. Lucky for me, it was a very solid John Wayne effort co-starring Claire Trevor & Walter Pidgeon. Good action, including a spectacular dive off of a cliff that resulted in an industry-wide change in policy, and a very good group of co-stars. Very good.

That's it....so far. I still have a bunch I rented.

Later,
Jeff