Let's begin...

Career Opportunities
IMDb; Rotten Tomatoes; Wikipedia

I think this is supposed to just be a comedy, but I took parts of it sort of seriously enough to consider it a dramedy. Anyway, there's this guy named Jim Dodge, who lives at home though he's old enough to be out on his own. He keeps getting fired from all his jobs. This seems to be because he is the town liar- but don't call him that, he doesn't seem to like it. Anyway, he's fairly entertaining. In a way he kinda reminds me of Ferris Bueller.

Anyway, he gets a job as night clean-up boy at Target, and while he's all alone overnight, goofing off, it turns out that this local rich girl, Josie McClellan (played by Jennifer Connelly, who we have always quite liked), is in the store too. She says she fell asleep while contemplating shop lifting. She wanted to get arrested to like, annoy her dad or whatever. Neither Jim nor Josie is particularly happy with their lives. They talk. They have fun together. I found alot of the conversations in this movie interesting, enough that I can almost consider this a serious character study as much as a comedy.

Then a couple of robbers show up in the store and Jim and Josie have to deal with them. I thought the movie went downhill with this twist, for the most part. But there were still some okay bits, and the end was okay too. I suppose the movie was worth watching once, because I liked these two characters, but on the whole, the movie wasn't that good. It's a shame the characters couldn't have been in a better movie. But then, I suppose that's why we have Ferris Bueller's Day Off....

Crash
IMDb; official website; Rotten Tomatoes; Wikipedia

I'm not really sure what to say. There are a bunch of different people in this movie, with different stories going on, but they're pretty much all interconnected, in one way or another. And of course it's all about racism. In terms of quality, the movie certainly deserves to be on a higher tier. And in terms of entertainment, perhaps also... But, it's not something I want to see again. Message movies are good and all, but rarely tell me anything I don't already know, and this is no exception. All it really does is remind me what a fucked up place the world is, which is something I was in no danger of forgetting. There are a few positive, optimistic moments, I suppose, and a few funny bits. But on the whole... *sigh* I dunno.

Sideways
IMDb; official website; Rotten Tomatoes; Wikipedia

Okay. I don't know that I'd ever watch this again. Probably not. Of course, I'd never consider watching it without a bottle of wine. Knowing it was sort of about wine, I bought a bottle of chardonnay before watching the DVD. About halfway through the bottle was empty, so I stopped it and went out to buy a bottle of pinot noir. When I got back I watched some more, then stopped it again to watch something on TV, then finished the movie. If I ever watched it again, I might get merlot, just to enjoy the irony. Ha.

Okay. So there's this struggling actor named Jack, who's about to get married. But first he goes on a weeklong trip with his friend Miles, an English teacher and frustrated novelist. Miles is also a connoisseur of wine, and he's been divorced for two years, though he hasn't gotten over it. He takes Jack to taste wines at various California locales, though Jack doesn't really know anything about wine. He likes anything. And his main objective on this trip is to get laid before he gets married. He also wants to help Miles get laid. The two of them eventually hook up with a couple of women named Stephanie and Maya (both of whom we like).

What else to say? I dunno. I liked the movie as a whole, and individual scenes, somewhat... Miles reminded me slightly of myself (though I have no palate worth speaking of). There was this bit where Maya was talking about why she was interested in wine, and Miles was obviously totally into her at that moment, but... wouldn't let anything come of it. I totally felt that. But, eventually... they got together. Then it came out that Jack was getting married, which ruined things for both Jack and Miles. And... more stuff happens. I dunno. I can't think of anything else to say. It was, you know, reasonably interesting and amusing, I guess.

The Terminal
DVD site; IMDb;Rotten Tomatoes; Wikipedia

So this guy named Viktor Navorski flies into New York City, to keep a promise to his father. What that promise is I won't reveal, but I'll say that it involves Jazz. He comes from a country called Krakosia, and when his plane lands, there is a military coup back home, and since the United States doesn't recognize the new government, his passport is invalid and he's not allowed onto U.S. soil. Also his home country won't allow any flights into Krakosia, I guess. So Viktor is now a man without a country. He can't leave the airport terminal. Which is especially hard at first, since he doesn't speak English and despite efforts, no one can really explain to him what's happened.

Eventually he figures it out, though, and soon teaches himself English. He befriends some of the workers at the airport, and falls in love with a stewardess named Amelia Warren (who we like). That's complicated, since she's having an affair with a married man, plus she doesn't know the truth about Viktor's situation. Also there's this guy named Frank Dixon, who's in charge of the airport, and isn't happy about Viktor being there. With all this going on, all sorts of drama and comedy ensues. Will Viktor ever get to enter America and fulfill his promise? What is his promise? Will he ever get to return home? If you answered "yes" to all these questions, you probably weren't paying close enough attention to the second one. But in any event, it's a decent movie, well worth checking out at least once. Once was probably enough for me, but I wouldn't blame you a bit if you wanted to see it more than that, yourself....