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Max Braden:

The Iron Lady: I feel like this movie was promoted falsely, because all the clips shown are of Thatcher in her prime political moments. But the movie is really about aging and loss, with just as many scenes with Thatcher as an elderly woman having visions of her dead husband. Streep is even better in emoting through the heavy makeup and prosthetics. It's a disjointed movie but I think the point pathos comes across well. She earned her Oscar this year.

The Big Year: Another movie that becomes far more clear after you see it. How small a percentage of the population knows that a "Big Year" refers to the world record in birding? Even with the vague impression that the three characters in the movie liked birds, I had no idea. Like the original Rocky, this movie sells the idea that winning the title isn't everything.

Rocky I & II & III: Working on quizzes for these I've watched them again in succession for the first time in many years. I'm always interested in movies that take place in the mid 1970s, a time I lived through (briefly) but have mostly forgotten. Compared to today's economic crisis, the average Joe in the 1970s had it rough. It's also struck me how good a storyteller Stallone was. Rocky I is almost more romance than boxing, and Rocky II drags by today's standards, but Stallone kept it simply and dealt with recognizable themes of devotion, insecurity, and ego. Everybody loves a rags to riches story, and watching the mean and indulgent get their comeuppance.

Twilight: Breaking Dawn: I *cannot* understand the appeal of this series. The wedding in this was the least romantic I've ever seen in film.

The Rum Diary: Just when you expect the reluctant hero to take up the torch... the movie ends? It's like they filmed the first act for something that isn't big enough to make a trilogy.

David Mumpower: In re-watching United 93 again the other day (yes, I'm capable of watching it more than once), I noticed a moment in the film that captivated me. The pilot who has hijacked United 93 recognizes that the cockpit is about to be overrun. As he prepares to crash the plane, he puts on his seatbelt. That moment is easily missed yet a fascinating example of subtle character development by Paul Greengrass. And even on this, my fifth viewing, I briefly hold out hope that the passengers will overwhelm the terrorists and save themselves. United 93 is in the discussion for best movie of the 2000s.

I finally got around to watching Burn After Reading and was thoroughly non-plussed. I guess that I am annoyed when George Clooney is anything other than the focus of a movie. Still, it's hard for me to imagine a Brad Pitt/George Clooney film with fewer satisfying moments than this...and I include Ocean's Twelve in that.

I also checked out Survival of the Dead, George Romero's most recent zombie film. At the risk of alienating BOP writer emeritus Chris Hyde, Romero has lost his touch as a zombie film maker. I didn't understand the Irish family feud, I didn't understand the horse eating and I really, really didn't understand the "ironic twist" ending. Frankly, the Dawn of the Dead remake is better than anything Romero ever did in his career and I say that as a huuuuuuge fan of the zombie genre.

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