Seabiscuit

In a Nutshell: Very good. Chris Cooper and William H. Macy give particularly memorable performances.

Quick Plot: A rich man who knows more about cars than horses hires a down on his luck "weird" horse trainer and a "huge" jockey to take his runt of a race horse to victory.

In Detail: I have heard nothing but good things about this movie, and I really have nothing but good things to say about it, except that it wasn't as great of a movie as I was expecting. However, I usually feel disappointed when I leave a film that was not all I hoped for, and that was NOT the case here. I left the theater very satisfied and not disappointed at all. Chris Cooper is just down-right wonderful! All of the other performances are very good, but his stands out particularly in my mind. So does William H. Macy's role; such a character! Gary Stevens (plays jockey George Woolf) also particularly sticks out as a wonderful performance, made all the more amazing when you consider that he *is* a professional Hall of Fame jockey (won the Kentucky Derby 3 times) and not an actor. I will say that I found the film a bit slow; not a bad thing in and of itself, just something to be ready for. Wouldn't lose much on the small screen, I don't think.

Will I Buy It? Probably not.

The Italian Job (2003)

In a Nutshell: Fun flick. One of the better heist films I've seen in a while, and *fabulous* chase scenes.

Quick Plot: Charlie is the ringleader of a band of high-tech thieves. When Steve, his second in command, double crosses the team and takes the gold they worked so hard to steal, they are determined to seek revenge the best way they know how: steal it back. Please note that I have not seen the original version of this film (1969), so I cannot compare the two.

In Detail: Not really a lot of details to give. I enjoyed this movie a lot. Thanks to everyone who told me I should see it! I wasn't really interested until I heard my friends raving about it. As I have mentioned before, I love chase scenes, and this has one good one (speed boats in Venice) and one excellent one (Mini Coopers through LA). Great cast of quirky characters, though I think Wrench was my favorite. Hilarious scene with Handsome Rob and the "cable guy"; if that really was Seth Green doing the voices, he should do voice work for a living and give up acting. Too funny! I know this film is about out of the theaters in most areas (I was surprised to find it still around here this weekend), but see it if you can. Video would be fine, but it would be more impressive on the big screen, even with the very few special effects.

Will I Buy It? Don't know yet. It's a solid maybe. :-)