Last night we watched Collateral starring Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, and Jada Pinkett Smith. While it’s not the best film any of these actors has done by a long shot, it is watchable.

Basically Cruise is a professional hit man that gets in Foxx’s cab. When his first hit goes wrong and the body lands on the cab Cruise is forced to tell Foxx what he’s doing – going around killing people. Foxx is forced to drive Cruise around all night so that he can complete his task.

It’s very high energy in a few places, the acting is solid (but not amazing), and the action sequences are ok (it’s really more of a drama than an action film). The only thing that was really disappointing was the ending – very predictable (I’ll let you figure it out). Not a must see but it is pretty good.

For Christmas I got one of my favorite Steve Martin films Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Ok, it’s not the greatest movie ever, and it’s not Marin’s best, but it’s a really good little film.

Again, I’m sure you’ve seen this one, but if not Martin and Michael Caine star as con men. They are basically gigolos who con rich women out of their fortunes. They eventually team up and work together so that Martin can learn from Caine, as he cons very rich women out of tons of money. As Martin is learning he decides he’s had enough and goes on his own. Since Caine doesn’t want the competition they agree to a bet – whomever can con $50,000 out of a lady they pick wins and the other must leave town.

In the end it is the two of them who get con’ed by the lady the pick, and they once again team up. It’s not great, don’t run out and rent it, but if it’s on and it’s been a while give it a watch, it’s worth it.

Over the holidays we watche my all time favorite movie – The Princess Bride. In my opinion this is the greatest movie ever made. I’ve seen it at least 50 times and every time I see it I get something new from it.

Why, if it’s my all time favorite movie doesn’t it get a 10? Well, as I learned a long time ago from my high school music director no artistic endevor can be perfect. None. You can get lose to perfection but you can not attain it. If you could it wouldn’t be art.

So, I’m sure you’ve seen this movie, but if you haven’t drop what you are doing, drive as fast as your car will drive to Blockbuster and rent it. If you’re a Netflix.com customer do not put it on your list, GO RENT IT. GO NOW. Why is it so good? It’s got comedy, action, pirates, romance, the most amazing sword fight ever (and yes I’m using Benettie’s defence against you), princesses, kings, an amazing cast (Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Christopher Guest, Andre the Giant, Fred Savage, Robin Wright Penn, Peter Falk, Carol Kane, and Billy Crystal) – how can you go wrong with that? Oh, and Rob Reiner directs it. It really is a wonderful movie, and seriously if you haven’t seen it see it, you’ll thank me for it – and if you don’t like it, well, you’re a total idiot!!!

We also recently watched Shine again. We’ve seen this one before, but since it’s a truly wonderful movie my wife wanted to see it again (which is a rariety).

If you haven’t seen this movie see it. Geoffrey Rush stars as a virtuoso piano player who basically looses it due to constant abuse from his father. Rush won the Oscar for best actor, and the film was nominated for Best Supporting Actor (a href=”http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000090/”>Armin Mueller-Stahl), Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Music, Best Picture, Best Writing. With a list like that you know it’s going to be great.

It’s really wonderfully done, Rush is just amazing in his role, even if he isn’t in even half of the film (much of the film is in flash back showing Rush’s character as a child) – which makes it even more amazing that he won best actor – a testament to his incredible performance.

I can’t stress enough how great this movie is, if you haven’t seen it and you’re in the mood for a drama (it’s really not super heavy and is very funny at times) see this film.

Recently we saw The Rookie. Its the story of a 30 something small town baseball coach that becomes a major league pitcher.

It’s actually a really good little movie. Dennis Quade stars as Jim Morris in the true story of how Morris became a major league pitcher. Morris, who grows up moving from town to town as an army brat finally ends up in a small Texan town at about 12 years of age. He stays in the town as he grows up and becomes the high school science teacher and baseball coach. His little team basically stinks, and wins 1 game a season. Since he hasn’t thrown since college due to a very serious injury he has no idea how much power he really has. When one of the players gets him to throw some it quickly comes back. The students can’t believe it. They make a deal with him that if they win their division, which they do, that he’ll have to go to open tryouts for the minors, which he does.

At his try out he blows them away with his 98 mph fast ball. No one can believe it. They all thing the radar guns have to be broken. They aren’t. He gets called to the minors and after about 3-4 months gets called up to pitch in the majors. In his first appearance he strikes the guy out on 4 pitches – all fastballs (although the movie only shows the 3 strikes). Not a must see but worth a watch.