A Serious Man I didn't know what to expect from the Coen brothers, but was counting on something different, and this surely was different. No murders or blood, for one thing. It's set in 1967 so lots of good old automobiles and interiors. What's it about? Being Jewish and trying to get some good advice when things are going wrong, the Bible story of Job. Is it one of my favorite movies? Did it delight me? No, but it's got that dry Coen brothers humor, and I would watch it again some time if only to see if I could get more out of it because I wasn't waiting for him to put someone into a wood chipper or blast them with a shotgun.

Inglourious Basterds Yes, that is the correct spelling. The promo blurb said it was a 'Quentin Taratino kill-fest.' Not quite. It was a war movie so killing was to be expected, a fantasy about Jews working underground to blow up Hitler and his buddies and end the war that night. The music was like a spaghetti western, which kind of helped it along, but otherwise, with lots of subtitles and slow building of the suspense, it was only medium-good. Brad Pitt played a guy from Tennessee with a poorly-executed Forrest Gump-like accent and we didn't see much of him, not that I was wanting to, but I think he was in there to sell tickets.

The Invention of Lying Imagine a world where lying does not exist, so if you tell the bank teller you've got $600 in your account when you only have $300 and the system is down, she believes you and hands over the $600. And everyone is bluntly honest - no reassuring white lie. Then Ricky Gervais discovers he can lie. It culminates when his mother is dying and she's afraid so to comfort her, he describes a heaven where everyone has a mansion and live forever with their loved ones. All the hospital people are transfixed and a religion is born. He writes 'the rules' on the back of a couple of pizza boxes and goes in front of a crowd to read them. It's a gentle jab at Christianity, and at one point his hair and beard have grown out so he looks like JC himself.

Amelia This is the story of Amelia Earhart. Hillary Swank is the star, and although I think she has had some fine performances in the past, this is very wooden. Although of course Amelia was passionate about flying, this didn't come across for me, so it was kind of a yawner with some pretty scenery here and there. I think the movie could have done more to convey how the public was interested in what Amelia was doing because that was some of the plot - how she and her husband were exploiting the media to generate money for her.

All About Steve You know those zany, light comedies about pudgy, geeky, repulsive guys with loser jobs who set out to woo a beautiful woman and by the end of the movie she sees what a beautiful person he is? This is one of those but the sex roles are reversed. Sandra Bullock is supposed to come across as a geeky crossword puzzle author who is chasing all over the country after a hot guy who is a network cameraman, but she is not convincing. The only word I can think of is desperate - on her part as an actress: the character just isn't there. One good thing over the usual male-centric farce, there weren't any crude bathroom jokes and no objectification of the sexes, aside from chasing a guy all over the country. I wouldn't watch this again.

Serious Moonlight It is very obvious that this movie was adapted from a stage play because there are limited scene changes, and very few actors. It has that draggy, too much talking stage play feel about it, too. 95% of it takes place in the bathroom with Timothy Hutton duct taped to the toilet and Meg Ryan arguing with him about why their marriage deserves a second chance. It has a clever plot twist that I won't reveal to you. I wouldn't watch it again myself, but if you like movies about successfully preventing your middle-aged hubby from running off with a 20 year-old, then you might enjoy it.

Shrink Of all these movies, this was my favorite. The star is Kevin Spacey, whom I always enjoy watching in movies. It's about a Beverly Hills psychiatrist to the stars who can't handle the death of his wife, so takes up smoking pot. He has various clients who give it that Los Angeles flavor, but what I liked the most was the naturalness of the dialog. It took awhile to figure out what was going on, so at the end of the movie I wanted to watch it again and maybe again after that. Not that they were all fuzzy-wuzzy likeable, but I enjoyed spending time with these people and liked the story in general, even though it stretched credibility somewhat. It has a happy ending although the subject matter is dark, and I needed that after seeing the most recent Dexter episode.

Our next Movie Marathon opportunity is New Year's Eve when we are staying 4 nights at the hotel. I'm hoping there will be a bunch of new movies on the list, the ones that came out at Christmas. My free hotel movies days are numbered: Mr. Troutbend's VIP gambling status is going to end in March so I am savoring every moment.