OK, some recent film reviews:

BARBERSHOP 2: I enjoyed the first BARBERSHOP mainly because of Cedric the Entertainer and his riffs on Rosa Parks, Jesse Jackson, and OJ Simpson. Any time he's on screen, it's a funny movie. In this, it's the same, but in a longer movie it's more welcome relief than a good centerpiece. I've believed, since I found out a sequel was coming out, that this would make a good TV show--it's not a slight at all. I just feel the movies are episodic in nature, and the characters would have more time to develop and the situations that are given minimal time could grow over a season. Here, the movie fails when it once again places the barbershop in peril, and Ice Cube has to fight the moguls to keep it afloat. I truly became bored with this movie whenever Cedric wasn't there--and they give you more of him, but not in the way that makes it a totally worthwhile experience. Best scenes are once again with Cedric, although the cutdown scene with Queen Latifah was played out in the previews, leaving one final, interrupted rant at the end of the movie to sink your teeth into--and the movie cops out. Where BARBERSHOP could say, "FUCK Jesse Jackson," literally, they can't say things about other people in this movie--it's disappointing, especially when in the first BARBERSHOP, we hear, "Ain't no one exempt!"

THE STATION AGENT: This movie has gotten some good reviews, especially for Peter Dinklage (Tito from LIVING IN OBLIVION) as a dwarf who inherits a train depot/house and moves to a small town where he meets a gaggle of people who look beyond his height and become his friend. It's a small, methodically paced film, and it's quite enjoyable, although there does appear to be that certain something missing. You could almost look at this movie like a love story, where instead of boy meets girl, boy meets friends, loses friends, gets them back, happily ever after, so forth. Nominee (for PIECES OF APRIL) Patricia Clarkson is great in this. Michelle Williams of DAWSON'S CREEK fame plays a sexy librarian (I don't know why no one else thinks this girl is hot, but I sure do...I guess when in the shadows of Katie Holmes it's hard to stand out). And there's Bobby Canavale playing the annoying talker, but cool guy, friend, who's also fun. Again, not a great movie, a good character movie--and another movie that might be a good TV show (like on Showtime or something).

CITY OF GOD (reprise): It's out again, for Oscar consideration and for the masses who didn't get to see it the first time it came out. I saw this again on Thursday, as Hollywood magically got the print instead of anyone else except for Belcourt (which only plays it once a day, and not every day). On my best list for 2002, and will likely join KILL BILL, VOL. I as movies that are the most memorable of the new millennium, this film is just...guys...fucking incredible. Well-deserved Oscar nominations, but particularly with editing, which is mind-blowing. This movie is every bit the epic THE GODFATHER is. Fabulous narrative style, everything-is-important writing, and just a brutally real film. You cannot allow this movie to go unwatched in your lifetime.