Seven (1995)

Brad Pitt really CAN act. Or, he could back when this movie was made.

Morgan Freeman is very convincing as a cop. But then again, has he ever picked a bad script or been anything less than convincing in a role?

Kevin Spacey is totally creepy, pretty much as always, and is the perfect bad guy even though he gets only a few minutes of screen time.

This is both a psycho thriller and a murder mystery. More shock-thriller than mystery. Gladly it was made 15 years ago so it's was not the gross-out murder movie it might have been today. This is instead a very smart movie with some very disturbing material.

If you missed this back when it was in the theaters, as I did, see it soon. This is a great example of how very smart movies are made. If you have not seen this in the last 15 years, watch it again and see how much Pitt has changed and how little Freeman and Spacey have.

Moon

How long could you live in solitary confinement? Sam Rockwell plays a guy who signs on for a 3-year (or so he thought) gig on a moon-based mining facility by himself (or so he thought). No spoilers here, but a few things in the story are not what they seem - or there would be no story.

Basically this is a story of corporate greed with a 2001: Space Odyssey facade. In fact given the movie feels like an homage to Stanley Kubrick. Classical music in space scenes and an always calm monotone computer, voiced by Kevin Spacey, are just two examples.

SciFi fans will most likely enjoy this unless they are also action junkies. This is an old-school sci-fi film where bad things happen to good people in space.

Watch this movie with someone who will enjoy pointing out all the 2001 similarities.

Fred Claus

As holiday movies go, this is one of them. It is not great, but it is not terrible either. There are some fun scenes, and some funny moments, but with so many other great holiday movies out there, this one should be down the list for your family to watch.

Vince Vaughn plays the title role which is pretty much the same character he plays in every other movie. If you like it, you'll love this movie. If not, you may want to skip this movie. There are no other performances here that I can recommend. This is sad too because some great names signed up.

Paul Giamatti is less than saintly as Santa. Miranda Richardson is almost painful to watch as Mrs. Santa. Kathy Bates made me cringe as Santa's Mom. And Kevin Spacey can play bad guys, but is not very convincing here as an efficiency expert sent to shut down the North Pole operations.

There is one scene that I really enjoyed in the middle of the movie. With Elvis's "Rubbernecking" as a soundtrack Fred Claus gets the elf workforce to loosen up and have a little fun. For me, this was the best part of the movie. You may enjoy other parts however.

Watch this movie with one of your siblings.

Pay It Forward

The concept for this movie was so poignant, and so valid, so timely and timeless, that one of the major insurance companies uses it 7 years later for an ad campaign. The idea is fairly simple; take the Golden Rule, and notch is up a bit. Do something really nice for 3 people who are expected to the same. The expanding wave of good will is supposed to consume society like a tsunami.

I liked this movie more for the concept than for the acting however. Don't get me wrong, the cast is wonderful. Haley Joel Osment, Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt, Jim Caviezel (Mel Gibson's Jesus), Angie Dickinson, Jay Mohr, and even Jon Bon Jovi all do an acceptable job, and are believable. But, they let the story carry the weight rather than strength of performance.

It is a feel-good movie and will probably make you cry with it's slightly sappy ending. But, it's worth the watch, again or for the first time, just to get the Utopian idea into the subconscious.