I have seen some movies in the past few weeks and just haven't written anything about them yet, so here goes.

MIRACLE
While this wants to be "Hoosiers" so badly, it doesn't quite live up to that film's innocence and charm. However, I must admit, knowing exactly what was going to happen did not deter my enjoyment from this film. This is very well made, although, as Chris said it does have that Disney touch every now and then ("I play for the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!"). Still, very entertaining, and am I the only one who thinks that Kurt Russell is the most underrated actor of the past twenty years?

TWISTED
Man, oh man. I haven't heard Chris's opinion of this, but if he liked it, I would expect a crack problem. All I should have to say is this. The central premise is that Ashley Judd is a cop who is on a case where men are turning up butchered, and she has slept with all of them in the past. However, only once is it mentioned that she even be taken off that case, and that's pretty much just a passing glance. The funny thing is that is not the stupidest part of the movie. If you guys have seen this or if you do, let me ask you this? At the climax when the killer is revealed (who is very easy to figure out), how do the cops know the exact barge in San Francisco that they are at? Why are they a couple of cops that we were introduced to at the beginning of the film? Why was this fucking piece of shit ever made?

SECRET WINDOW
David Koepp, as a director, really loves those "Twilight Zone" esque stories. His two previous films as a director are "Stir of Echoes" and "Trigger Effect." The difference is they were good, and "Secret Window" is not (Yet another example of Ebert and Roeper handing out thumbs up like its candy). This movie might have been a decent thirty minute episode of a horror anthology, but it doesn't work as an hour and a half movie. The ending is easy as hell to figure out even if you haven't read the story, and Johnny Depp does not pull it off whatsoever. Pretty stupid and boring stuff.

THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST
I don't really want to actually talk about this movie anymore, except to say I was dissapointed. Mel Gibson has not made a film, he has made a fluff piece of atonement in the most stereotypical way imaginable. Yes, I am not a very religious person, and if I was, I might like it more because compared to other "Christian" movies, this is one of the better ones I'm sure. But where "The Last Temptation of Christ" and "The Ten Commandments" moved me, "Passion" left me wondering when the lady was going to be tied to the train tracks by the man with the porn mustache, or when somebody was going to drive through a pane of glass. Gibson is very limited as a director; he only knows how to copy what has come before him. He doesn't seem to be able to make anything he directs his own vision; I don't give a damn what he has to say. Jim Cavaziel was great though.

Star Ratings
MIRACLE ***
TWISTED *
SECRET WINDOW **
THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST **

Still haven't really seen anything to wow me. Will be checking out "Dawn of the Dead" tonight and hopefully the Jim Carrey film later this weekend.