1) No Country for Old Men
(to my considerable glee, I'm not alone here!)

2) The Host
(beyond awesome Korean film)

3) Persepolis
(animated French film by Iranian Marjane Satrapi)

4) Into the Wild
(must review this one)

5) Sicko
(Mike's still my man)

6) The Namesake
(seek it out!)

7) Away from Her
(heart-wrenching, smart, and, sigh, Julie Christie. . .)

8) The Darjeeling Limited
(Wes Anderson’s best since Rushmore)

9) The Savages
(I think I know these people)

10) Michael Clayton
(very imperfect but take chances and lingers)

WHERE IS: There Will Be Blood?: Hey, no doubt: very good acting; interesting camera work; long theatrical shots with no dialog; relevant themes of oil, corruption, religious fundamentalism -- you name it. But I didn't love it. It's a subjective thing, but for whatever reason it didn't move or provoke me.

BUT I ENJOYED: Talk to Me (Cheadle!), Elizabeth: The Golden Age, The Assassination of Jesse James, Wristcutters (see it for Tom Waits alone), Kite Runner, Paprika, Charlie Wilson's War, Mr. Bean's Holiday, Zodiac, I'm Not There, and (cough, cough) I am Legend (well, the first half . . . ) and also (cough cough) Juno (though too cutesy and overly writerly for me.) I am debating whether to include Black Snake Moan on this list... Tough one.

HARD TO WATCH BUT GLAD I DID: Darfur Now, Redacted, A Mighty Heart, Red Road, and the incredibly depressing but excellent 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days. I am still deciding if I am glad to have watched En Vie de Rose…

SHOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER: Rendition, American Gangster.

HAVE YET TO SEE: The Diving Bell, Sweeney Todd, Gone Baby Gone, Lust/Caution, and lots of other stuff.

MOST ANNOYING: Reign Over Me (despite Cheadle, whom I love madly.)

SICKEST MOST VILE AND MANIPULATIVE MOVIE EVER MADE: Untraceable. *If you liked it, seek help fast!!!*: I can’t fathom why anyone would agree to be a part of it and shudder to think of the discussions in the editing room.

MOST OVER-RATED: Atonement. The first third is gorgeous and intriguing and the young girl is superb. But after Cute Guy is arrested, it becomes contrived, increasingly pretentious. In the end it is all a gimmick and, alas, even Vanessa Redgrave can't save it.

When it comes to the Oscars, there was a time when the best movies were the ones that everyone went to see, and those were the ones that won the awards. That's no longer the case, and I wonder why.

I still love going to the movies. I'm like a kid. Almost. I love being with the crowds, though I admit to sitting way in front to avoid being shoulder--shoulder with folks. Yes, fkicks are over priced, the food is toxic, the popcorn drenched in all kinds of fats -- though I admit to indulging some. I do stick to water though!

I do enjoy going to the theater myself, but since I usually am pretty cheap about entertainment that is not my USUAL entertainment (hehe) I tend to just go to the movies that I think are going to be really cool.

Jopaku - unfortunately yes there are many annoyances in theaters, but I've been so angry when I watch a movie in DVD that I really love and I know I could've watched it in the theater... Because the theater's sound and huge screen really give you a completely different experience than watching at home. That's why I was very happy to go watch the re-release of Blade Runner not too long ago!

MY LIST : OLDER MOVIES THAT I'VE WATCHED LATELY FOR THE FIRST TIME THAT I LIKED

-Children of Men *****
-Dune (Extended Version) ****
-The Day After ***
-Soylent Green (am I seeing a pattern here!?) ***
-The Bad Sleep Well (great Kurosawa movie) ****

No Country for Old Men blew me away. It was not just nihilistic, but moving, even inspiring. (Each time I say that people look at me like I'm nuts.) But it dug so deep into the impending fate/doom of our random lives that the heroic moment at the end was breath-taking to me. The film reflected how ugly we often are but how beautiful and rare life itself is. Talking about this movie actually makes me sound religious.

Maybe it's the atheist's version of that Mel Gibson's Passion movie. While there is a very obvious "evil" and maybe a Judas in No Country, there is also a Jesus, a quiet, but very brave and beautiful one.

And I must see The Bad Sleep Well. How could I not know this Kurosawa film?

I love how you love Dune! I dug the book back in the day, but don't remember the movie well.

About Dune and male enthusiasm (haha): My first and most sarcastic answer would be that just because it is Sci-Fi it will eternally appeal to men A LOT more than women. It is not a very far fetched thing when you see 'nerdy' sci fi enthusiasts being portrayed as inept in the realm of meeting women, or as reclusive people whose main concerns in life is the lives of fantasy characters.

Women, when it comes to movies, (in my experience and my opinion), have a stronger tendency to worry less about characters in fantasy lands; and more about characters in real situations perhaps involving romance(hence the term "CHICK FLICK"). I had a girlfriend that had never watched star wars! And when I showed it to her she was vaguely interested despite my enthusiasm. (wow this could spawn a whole new topic to discuss!)

Another biggie is the fact that in Sci-Fi, the story usually revolves around a main character which is generally male, and involved in some kind of war... ...and there you go.

Now, I think Dune has some exceptions - Paul Atreide's adventures; are not so much adventures in the sense of Indiana Jones or Luke Skywalker, but more or less 'political adventures'; not that it changes the fact that the main guy is still a man, but it doesn't rely on a childish fascination for action and epic sword fights. Unfortunately, even if in the grand scheme of things the women in Dune do have very major roles, in the movie they do seem rather downplayed and it's unclear to see if they contribute to anything crucial except from the obvious.

I recommend watching the extended release. That's the one I watched first, and when I watched the actual theatrical release, there were some things that were missing that I felt were very important.

I think the reason Dune spoke to me so much was that I'd been dwelling in this whole idea of taking knowledge about the world and taking all kinds of positive views and trying to use all of that knowledge to turn into an interesting sci-fi story (And the big challenge in sci fi is somehow relating all those views into the visuals!). Not that this is anything new, but Frank Herbert literally wrote THE story that did this.

Children of Men - I think that movie is one of the only Sci-Fi stories that have been made recently that are very successful at that as well. Taking all kinds of current events and madness even a step further and telling us so many things about the current state of world - and somehow moving some emotions inside of us that make us sensitive to real issues. That movie was emotional in so many levels, it really blew me away.