Brucenelson

Dialogue is sharp and for once Clooney seems to be a match to his role. Great actors -- everything seems to point to a complex, insightful look at politics. And what do you get as the pinion bolt to this whole creaky scheme? A knocked up intern and a clandestine meeting/ job interview that I still can't figure why it was so earthshaking and eventful. For me the twists didn't make a good enough of a hangman's noose at the end. Clooney was able to have his character make some choice political arguments.

This movie starts out so fine -- what a world Scorcese creates, ripe for an adventure which the girl yearns for. And that appears to be what's in store, mysteries are afoot but alas what we ultimately get is a history lesson on the cinema. And ironically the artist he celebrates would never have been so unimaginative in his movies. Yet Scorcese's world might be strong enough to overcome the lackluster ending and still garner him his elusive award.

The story of course is about a horse of course and all its various owners, which works but makes the movie overly long, but probably the biggest flaw is the ET aspect of the movies -- is this a kid's movie or something more, I don't think Speilberg knows and shoots for the middle and never quite hits the right tone for this story. Beautiful photograpy, some wonderful moments, usually the more grown up realistic moments. I had just read a book about WW I and wish that he had steered the story more into what was really happening.

Point Blank wants to sprint from start to finish, and does start with a bang, takes off and maintains and moves at an exciting pace; but the plot, most of which happens prior to the start of the race and is so knotty, that we have to get narrated often in odd breaks in the action, while the actors catch their breath, literally. It's been a while since I have seen so much running in a movie. I see where some critic get the Run Lola Run comparism. But even after being narrated up-to-date, I still don't think I could tell you everyone's motivation for all the running and shooting. The two main runners for their lives -- one even hops up from critic care and starts running holding in his insides -- are both good solid actors when they get time to act. A simpler evil chaser would have made all the running much better.

Silly, entertaining for the most part, the same impersonations repeated through out get a little old, but when they're clicking it's Monty Python on tour. The two characters are odd-couplish and delineated enough that they punctuate and keep the story going. There are attempts at side stories, Coogan's love life, and they are pretty weak. Usually he has to find a remote spot to phone his girl friend which brings in the real star, the cameo by the Northern England landscape. Beautiful. There's one gorgeous scene where Rob Brydon is babbling on and Coogan tells him to shut up, a feeling I had a couple of times during the movie. The food even looked intriguing but again they were so absorbed in their impersonations they paid scant attention to it.

Did a good job of his protest years, but didn't really delve much into his change of style or what really caused the break down. But overall wonderful to see him get the attention. The audience at the Alamo in Austin gave him a round of applause at the end. Good book about him Same title Micheal Schumacher.