> > Nov 21 - Gothika
> >
> > A psychiatrist (Halle Berry) wakes up as a patient in her own asylum. Ghosts, amnesia, and unspeakable crimes are trendy these days. A lot of people are keeping an eye on Berry, after a successful last couple of years, so this project is probably pivotal for her. The early word is good.
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> Movies like this tend to get too caught up in their own edginess and forget about the entertainment. I trust Halle Berry - she's had good taste in projects lately, and she's talented and nice to look at - but I'm concerned that this will turn out to be American McGee's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest more than anything else.

Leen and I caught a Friday matinee. It's pretty edgy, although perhaps not by the standards of today's television crime dramas, but it seeks to be entertainment first and foremost. There's a lot of sneaking around in the dark, startling imagery, and cold, gothic sets. All I ask for these kinds of movies is a likeable and believable star and technical accomplishment. Gothika has both, but not really anything beyond that. It's a good genre piece, and that's it.

> > Dec 12 - Stuck On You
> >
> > Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear are co-joined twins in this Farrelly Brothers comedy co-starring Cher. If, before this project's conception, you had made up the premise for the Farrellys' next movie, it could pretty easily have been something like this. Expect it to be crude, but, although their track record is not spotless, the Farrellys do know how to elevate crude to almost noble heights.
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> I've never "gotten" the Farrellys. Stephen's tried explaining them to me, but to no avail. I concede that there's apparently something there that I'm missing, but, well, I'm still missing it.

The thing that distinguishes the Farrellys from pretty much every other maker of a gross-out movie ever is that their movies (with one exception) have a heart to them. They get laughs out of people with physical and mental handicaps, slapstick involving children and animals, and any other taboo and seemingly insensitive thing imaginable. But the laughs are never *at* their helpless targets. They have real love for their characters, and I think that shows through in their movies.

The exception? Me, Myself, & Irene, an inexplicably mean-spirited movie that I would have assumed came from their imitators except that the credits said otherwise.

I'm not exactly a big fan of the Farrellys anyway. Poor taste, however well intentioned, is not my thing. But I do have to concede that they're funny, which is more than I can say for most of the makers of the relentless parade of idiot slapstick comedies we're attacked with every other week these days.