Reviews by doudouce55

Charlie Finneman (Adam Sandler) is a man who lost his family in the September 11 attack on New York City. Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle) is a dentist, who one day runs into Charlie, his old college roommate. Not knowing anything about Charlie's family will help Alan in rekindling their friendship, and in helping Charlie slowly recover from his grief.

This is definitely Sandler at its best. I've never cared for his comedies, but I enjoyed his performance as Charlie. Quite convincing. Yes, Don Cheadle is always great, Jada Pinkett-Smith as Alan's wife is also excellent, but Liv Tyler has always disappointed me. She just looks bored in this movie, bored and bland.
Good script, nice tearjerking story.

Worth watching. Recommended.

Danika (Marisa Tomei) is a 30-something protective mother who works in a bank. She is married to successful husband Randy (Craig Bierko). They have 3 kids, 2 boys, Kurt and Brian, and 1 daughter, Lauren. Danika is disturbed and near a breakdown. She has terribly terrifying nightmares and is constantly distracted in her work, which lead her to commit a certain number of unforgivable mistakes. She is seeing a psychiatrist, Dr. Evelyn (Regina Hall). Will her nightmares come to life? Will her lack of attention cause a tragedy? What will happen next?

The story was promising, but when the plot came to its end, I couldn't believe how stupid the whole script was. It would seem that her problems originated when her husband had an affair with their nanny. It was too simplistic to be believable. However, the way the movie was shot (past and present scenes back and forth) turned out to be confusing, because the viewer isn't sure what takes place in the present or the past.
And the acting is bad. At least Regina Hall's is bad. Marisa Tomei is usually a good actress, I found her overacting a little too much. Surprisingly, Kyle Gallner (as teenage Kurt) is quite good.

Confusing. Still interesting to watch once, for the ending.
It's definitely not on my most recommended list, but it's worth watching, and not a total waste of time.

Doug is a voyeur and hides a camera that films girls, one of which is Amy. One day, while she is away, he enters her apartment and installs cameras and transponders in different rooms.
Welcome to the world of invasion of privacy and voyeurism.

This looked like a teenage movie from the dvd box cover, but the employee at the videostore where I rented this told me this was a thriller, an *intellectual* thriller, based on actual events. BEWARE, this is NOT true. This *is* an adolescent movie, with bad actors and a bad script. Too many flaws, I don't know which is worse. Possibly the camera in the bag? It always seemed to be at eye level with Amy, when it should be at her waist or below. (Who carries a bag over his/her shoulder?)

Seriously, the dog was the best actor.

Don't waste your time.
Nothing interesting there.
In fact, it's so boring that the title should have been "Voyeurism - this is Doug's story". It's that boring and useless.

David Morton (Timothy Hutton) is a writer who attends a conference in Majorca, with his partner. That night he asks her to marry him and she says yes. Later, in their room, while he is on his computer, Jane receives a phone call, following which she jumps out of the window.
Another girl, Silvia, receives a phone call and hears music; following this, she jumps, but her landing on an awning prevents her death.
David and Silvia soon meet and decide to investigate the reasons behind the numerous "suicides" happening in the city.
Is David imagining a book? Is he writing the "Great American Novel"? Or is he living reality?

A rather well-done thriller. Very interesting ideas. Well-written script. Beautiful cinematography. I can't say I especially cared for the score, I actually couldn't find a link between that and the events taking place, personally I didn't find the song depressing enough!!

I'm quite surprised at the movie's quality, because I expected it to be a grade-B movie, but it most definitely is not.
Timothy Hutton is a great choice for the lead actor, despite the lack of emotion at times.

Highly recommend to all who enjoy intellectual thrillers, which require thinking!

Mike Enslin (John Cusack) writes books about haunted places: mansions, hotels, graveyards, you name it. One day in the mail he receives a postcard advertising for the Dolphin Hotel in New York City, which contains a note: DO NOT ENTER 1408. So he starts investigating the hotel room, and eventually ends up wanting to stay in the room. At the hotel, he meets manager Gerald Olin (Samuel Jackson), who tries to persuade Mike not to go in the room because strange things have happened and no one ever lasted more than one hour in room 1408.

WARNING: VERY PREDICTABLE.
Yes, there were thrills and scares, yes the buildup to the room was well done, but after that point, it just goes downhill because it is so predictable - despite the few scares. A lot of it has to do with logic, and more to the point, things that the manager tells Mike: electronic devices don't work in 1408, yet when Mike turns his computer on, it works??? The tv remote works? The radio? Is it just me, or don't these things work on electricity? So in that sense, the script was bad.
Also bad, because of its predictability. Without spoiling anything, it would be hard to talk about the event that makes the movie predictable, so I won't go any further.

Reasons for giving 2 full stars (4/10 note) for this movie, include Jackson's and Cusack's performances, as well as the ending. Let's put it this way: as a ghost story, the ending makes sense. But as horror or thriller, it doesn't.

Rent it if you like ghost stories. If you like thrillers, nothing should surprise you.

Fed up with their boss' arrogance, two assistant butchers open their own butcher shop. One day, the young Bjarne, forgets to tell the other man, Svend, that there is a workman in the meat freezer/locker. Svend locks up at night, and the next morning he finds the man dead.
His first customer, his old boss, shows up at that moment. He is having important friends over for dinner and wants to see what Svend can provide him that is so fantastic. Svend decides to provide him meat from the dead body figuring that no one will ever come back. But to his surprise, the next day, there is a line-up for his meat! Believing that his success is due to the dead man's meat, he starts to lock more people in his freezer.

It is a rather funny, yet dark comedy. However it must be stressed that it is sometimes slow, and, no pun intended, I really felt as if it was a slice or chunk of a story which, in the end, had not much of a point.
Still a good 100 minutes. Not boring at all. But you have to not mind subtitles since the movie is in Danish.

1944. Poland.
Jewish shopkeeper Jakob (Robin Williams) accidentally overhears a German radio broadcast about Russian troop movements. Upon his return to the ghetto, he shares his information with a friend. Suddenly, rumors fly about a secret radio within the ghetto and Jakob tells fictitious news bulletins about Allied advances against the Nazis.
However Jakob has a real secret: he is hiding a young Jewish girl who escaped from a camp transport train.

A lengthy and depressing film. At least the character wants to share hope with the fellow prisoners, that's a good thing. Still, the Holocaust is a touchy subject and I'm always a little reluctant to watch films about that event.

Good performance by Robin Williams. He is as excellent as a comedian, as he is as a dramatic actor.

Well-directed, this movie is worth watching, but you should be in the mood to watch something like this.

Prohibition era. 1940.
Tom Reagan (Gabriel Byrne) works as an advisor for Leo (Jon Polito), a crime boss. His rival boss is Johnny Caspar. They are fighting over a bookie, Bernie Bernbaum (John Turturro), who has been cheating Caspar. Soon, Bernie is wanted dead. But Leo is protecting him because he's dating Bernie's sister, Verna (Marcia Gay Harden). Tom tries to keep the peace but instead, he finds himself in the middle of a war, and after admitting that he fooled around with Verna, Leo kicks him out. Tom joins Caspar's team, but Caspar's henchman Eddie Dane (J.E. Freeman) is suspicious of Tom and his intentions.

Very good movie.
Good script. Hilarious at times. Memorable lines. Witty dialogue.
Well directed. Absolutely wonderful cast.
Another title for the film might be "Tom's got it coming - or how Tom gets whacked in the face so many tims" - he just keeps getting hit in the face so much, in the end, that's what you think the movie is about.
Still, good action.

Giving it a 7, and not an 8, because I disliked the score. I found it annoying and distracting, and actually rather inappropriate. The main characters are not of Irish descent (or did I miss something?), so I didn't see the point of playing Irish music.

Still a recommended movie worth watching once in a lifetime.

Redford, Aykroyd, Phoenix, Strathairn and Poitier are Sneakers: they "sneak" into computers.
Martin (Robert Redford) gets a visit from two allegedly NSA employees who want him and his team to retrieve a black box. It soon is evident that these men are not who they are, and soon enough Martin will find an old friend (Ben Kingsley) is behind all his latest sneak.
Will the team get through with the plan? Will everyone make it?

A great film about computer hacking, cryptography, decoding,

A great cast. I love everyone in this movie! Other actors worth mentioning: McDonnell as Liz is brilliant and Stephen Tobolowski is great for his role.
A wonderful score. Perfect. Really.
And most of all, a wonderful, clever script that delivers great humor (some of those lines are memorable), good action scenes, and references to many events and situations that has the viewer thinking. (Listen to some of Kingsley's comments about the world war and what's important...)

Enjoy.

(This is one of the best films on my list. I always watch it, at least 4 times a year. One of the few films that never bore me.)

Snipes is "Lucky", a man who made mistakes in the past and is trying to get his life back together, when he stumbles upon dirty money.
Meanwhile, Cybil Shepherd plays a neurotic, crazy woman, who, with the help of an Asian man, films weird pictures.

The director, Mario Van Peebles, should stick to acting. His directing isn't the worst, but it certainly isn't the best: Shepherd was overacting, and the Asian actor was just unbelievably bad.
I can't say I'm impressed with any performances, but the script isn't believable enough to convince me of the potential of this film.
It certainly could have been better, if the script had been better written.

Unless you plan on renting this on a rainy day, stay away from it. Even the action scenes won't be missed!