Infamous, The U.S. vs. John Lennon, Samaritan Girl, Free Zone, Casino Royale, & Curse of the Golden Flower

Infamous is the second Truman Capote writing In Cold Blood movie that came out in the 2005-2006 time frame. And I have to say that Capote actually isn't as good as Infamous. Well, I still like Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Capote and Catherine Keener as Harper Lee, but Lee Pace and Daniel Craig, along with Sigourney Weaver and Jeff Daniels are considerably better. Toby Jones and Sandra Bullock (yes, her) are not bad at all, so overall the acting is somewhat better. Plots exactly the same, although a little more explicit in Capote falling for Perry Smith, so there really isn't much to compare besides acting. Everything else seems to be pretty similar, so uh... both are good, but not great?

The U.S. vs. John Lennon really wasn't anything particularly interesting unless you're a Beatles fan. As I am one, I spent the entire running time ironing and singing along. Because I'm apparently domesticated now? Maybe. And I'll always be a Beatles nerd. As a Beatles fan, I enjoyed it, and it made me sort of like Yoko a little bit more. It wasn't Yoko's fault that the Beatles broke up, it's the Beatles's fault. Also, Richard Nixon.

Samaritan Girl is a film from Kim Ki-Duk that really makes me question what the hell is up with him. He's a messed up guy. Also, are there really that many high school girl prostitutes? This isn't the only film about this, but I never hear about teens selling themselves in the media. I mean, having sex for money. Sad frakkin' film, with two girls making money for a trip to Europe together by one of them being a prostitute and the other being the pimp (can a pimp be female?), until the prostitute dies and then the alive one starts to sleep with the same johns and gives them their money back. But the dad finds out. And miserableness ensues.

Free Zone starts with a long scene of Natalie Portman crying in a taxi. And then becomes a journey into Jordan for $30,000. It's directed by Amos Gitai, who did one of the better sections of 11'09"01, but also did the supremely boring Kippur. This one unfortunately was far more like Kippur. Only for Portman completists. Unless you like your women Israeli. Which she sort of is, so ummm... she's hot? Just rewatch Closer. Not Beautiful Girls, Leon, or Heat, because those're just icky now. Even if at the time, she was my age. Creepy now.

Casino Royale was considerably darker than I was expecting for a Bond film, although I don't see how Bond would fall so much harder for Vesper Lynd than a lot of other Bond Girls. I know this was a "restart" of the Bond story, but she wasn't all that. I mean, I've seen her naked. The movie also was about 20 minutes too long. I didn't care for the entire ending section of the film. Certainly far better than most post-60s Bonds, as I vastly prefer the non-ridiculous ones. Well, the non-ridiculous are generally better than the ridiculous ones (seriously, Moonraker can suck it), even if On Her Majesty's Secret Service and You Only Live Twice are my two favorite Bonds. Certainly better than the Brosnan or Dalton Bonds, maybe better than The Spy Who Loves Me, but only better than Dr. No, Thunderball, and Diamonds Are Forever of the Connerys. It's also a metric frakton better than the earlier Casino Royale. And I wanted to point out that Daniel Craig's eyes are ridiculously blue.

Curse of the Golden Flower is all pretty and no good. Also, every battle scene is narrated by every single person in it. Whenever they throw spears, "Throw", or to catch someone "Catch". What the hell? Are you treating everyone in the audience like they're 4, Zhang Yimou? What the hell happened to you? You make amazing films for most of your career, and then you start to stagnate by making enormous costume epics, and man is this one all costume and no epic. And what's up with the female costumes? I never imagined there could be as much cleavage in China now as there was in this film. Every female had an outfit that looked like it seriously constricted blood flow to the breasts for more impressive cleavage. But man, that was just distracting. And once you got past that, you realized that it was just a stupid plot. Full of incest for those of you who like that sort of thing.