Fantastic Mr. Fox

Fantastic indeed. This was one cuss of a great cussing movie. This fun little stop motion flick is based on a Roald Dald story about a fox with existential problems (to paraphrase: who am I and can a fox every really be happy without a chicken in its teeth?). It is very much a Wes Anderson movie, and not just because many of his "regulars" do voice overs. Everything about the movie-diaologue, themes, shots-and directing all scream ANDERSON. So if you are into that sort of thing you might just love it as much as the kid sitting behind me who exclaimed "MR. FOX!" right when the movie started.

Rating: a fantastic 84%

The Brothers Bloom

I wanted to like The Brothers Bloom, I really did. I have a big crush on Adrien Brody (did you know he's banned from SNL?), enjoy comedy, and generally want independent movies to be great. While this "globe-trotting comedy about the last great adventure of the world's greatest con men" was better than most mainstream movies I've seen this year (but not sexy sexy Star Trek, of course), it was also extremely predictable and felt pretty ripped off from other movies. For example, a scene where Brody wins the heart of the quirky Garden State-equse female love interest by getting hit by her car was straight out of Back to the Future (full disclosure, my date is the one who noticed this). All in all, it played out like a bad Wes Anderson wanna be (not helped by the fact that it has one of the stars of The Darjeeling Limited on a travel adventure). Yeah, sorry, as cute as this was, this shit was played harder than your dad played your mom last night.

Rating: 60%