W.

Anyone that knows me or reads my other blog knows that politically I lean slightly to the right. Okay - a little more than slightly, but that's not the point. When I saw that Oliver Stone was producing a movie about George W. Bush, I could only picture the worst. After all, Old Olly is known for his conspiracy movies and I was a bit afraid that he would pal up with Michael Moore and prove how George W. Bush created Hurricane Katrina and directed it to the 7th Ward in New Orleans.

Stone Cold Oliver is known for his conspiracy movies. Remember JFK, The Doors, Born on the 4th of July, Nixon? Though he has put out some good ones - Platoon, Wall Street. But he's also produced some duds - Camera, Alexander. I've never seen Natural Born Killers, so I cannot comment on that one.

W. stars Josh Brolin as the W. I'll have to admit, he did a good job with the voice. He really did sound like the former President. However, I must admit that on the whole, the acting sucked. Thandie Newton's performance as Condileeza Rice was comical to the point where I really was "LOL". Jeffrey Wright as Colin Powell was nearly as bad. James Cromwell, the 9 ft tall thespian, made no attempt to impersonate George H. W. Bush, but that was probably okay. Elizabeth Banks, who I have a slight attraction, did a fair job as Laura Bush, and again, made little attempt to actually impersonate her. Richard Dreyfuss, on the other hand, had perhaps his best performance since Jaws. He portrayed Dick Cheney and portrayed him as we would think of him.

Now, we all know that W is a bit of a doofus. Okay, he's a huge doofus. His grammar is horrible, he stumbles in his speeches, he makes up words, he can't think on his feet. We get that. However, Stone made it a point to get every gaff W's ever said into 2 hours. It was like watching David Letterman's daily Bush-bashing, but not funny. And the result of this is 2 hours of the worst movie ever made. At several points I though about turning the movie off and pouring Tabasco sauce in my eyes - something that would me more enjoyable.

W. is rated PG-13 for piss-poor acting, drug and alcohol references, and a liberal agenda, but more on that in my political blog. The movie is 129 minutes long, but that's 115 minutes too long. I do not recommend this movie. In fact, I recommend that you avoid it at all costs. Go rent some gardening documentaries. You'll get more out of it. I give his piece of junk movie the lowest rating - 1 Star.

Definitely, Maybe

Definitely a chick-flick, maybe. But as I have said before, I seem to be a sucker for many of these. There are always really cute girls that I like to look at. And usually there's some jackass guy that makes me angry and wonder why hot chicks dig jerks. But I digress.

Definitely, Maybe is an Adam Brooks movie staring Ryan Reynolds (Waiting..., Van Wilder) as Will Hayes, the divorcing father of Maya (Abigail Breslin). When he announces his impending divorce, she throws a tantrum and refuses to talk to him. Finally, good sense comes to her and she decides to throw 4 billion questions at him about his love life and he begins telling her a story of the romantically conflicting time he had with 3 girls.

One of the 3 girls (Isla Fisher, Elizabeth Banks, and Rachel Weisz) would end up being Maya's mother, so throughout the story, she is trying to decide which one she hopes is her mom. To throw her, he changes the name of all of the girls, or so we are led to believe.

In his youth, he meets a hot girl working at the Bill Clinton headquarters in New York City. I told you he was conflicted, right? It's deeper than romance. Anyway, he then meets a girl who is married to/dating a professor (a really old Kevin Kline). And finally, there's the college sweetheart who still lives in Texas. All have their great traits, yet all of them have something that drives him nuts.

A friend of mine said the movie was kind of corny. However, I liked it. Like Maya, I was unable to figure out who the mom was. And there's a nice little twist at the end. See - love does win in the end - at least in the movies. The rest of us are schluffing away at our jobs only to go home and do laundry and the kids to bed.

Another movie meant for my wife that she has yet to watch, I gave this movie 4 stars. There's enough humor and cute girlness that I think the guys will like it. And it's kind of interesting seeing Ryan Reynolds not being a total jerk like in the rest of his movies. The movie is just under 2 hours long and is rated PG-13 for language, sexuality, "frank discussion", and, get this - smoking. Gasp!!!!