Of all the movies we watched this weekend, I like these the best. The blurbs in quotes are from Netflix.

Michael Clayton (2007)"... burned-out corporate lawyer Michael Clayton (George Clooney), who's built a career on cleaning up his clients' messes. When a guilt-ridden colleague (Tom Wilkinson) threatens the settlement of a multimillion-dollar case, Clayton faces his biggest challenge ever." I recommend this one highly. The villian is a large chemical company whose pesticide poisoned small farmers and the corporate counsel ends up hiring hit men to keep the smoking gun memo that would clinch the case for the class-action plaintiffs from coming to light.

American Gangster (2007)"...tense crime thriller starring Denzel Washington as true-life Harlem drug lord Frank Lucas. Russell Crowe co-stars as the dogged outcast NYPD cop charged with bringing Lucas down." Enjoyed this one. Russell Crowe played a kind of dweeby police detective in a very believable low-key way - he wasn't strutting around like "I'm cool, I'm Russell Crowe playing a dogged outcast." Not that I'm saying he does that in his movies.

Charlie Wilson's War (2007)
"Texas congressman Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks) sets a series of earth-shaking events in motion when he conspires with a rogue CIA operative (Philip Seymour Hoffman, in an Oscar-nominated role) to aid Afghan mujahedeen rebels in their fight against the Soviet Red Army." This is based on a true story, and I wish I had seen the 60 Minutes interview with Charlie Wilson. Pretty much this male-chauvinist pig congressman (who calls his female press secretary 'Jailbait') gets interested in the crappy job America is doing helping the Afghans fight the Soviet invasion (such as giving them helicopters without radar needed to get the job done). The problem is that if American weapons are used, Russia will say we are waging war on them, so he figures out how to get other countries to sell Russian-made weapons to the US to use against the Russians. They are successful in their goal to make such a drain on the Russian economy and morale (like happened to the USA in Vietnam or Iraq) and the Russians finally pull out of Afghanistan.

It is bittersweet at the end, though, because after getting Congress to approve spending $50 million or whatever it was on this project and succeeding, he can't get them to agree to $1 million to build schools that would teach the young people that America is their friend, and you realize as the credits roll (it doesn't hit you over the head) that this is the cause of Afghanistan becoming the cradle of terrorism against the USA. There is a quote at the end by Charlie Wilson about how we dropped the ball. Tom Hanks is good in this - I don't know if it was makeup, but he actually looked different from his usual self - rounder face, for one thing.

No Country for Old Men (2007): This won the Academy Award for best movie, so you'd expect it to be good. I wish I had watched it a second time because the first time was very suspenseful. It's about drug smuggling and murderers in small town Texas during the late 1970s. I loved seeing the 'old' cars and pickup trucks. I recommend it if you don't mind seeing a lot of people get shot without hesitation.

Juno (2007)"Facing an unplanned pregnancy, teenage Juno (Ellen Page) devises a plan to locate the proverbial perfect parents to adopt her baby. But the seemingly ideal couple Juno chooses still has some growing up to do." I just loved this movie. It's offbeat and all of the characters are interesting and you want to know them better. It is refreshing to see a 16 year old who has the maturity to realize she doesn't want to keep her unwanted child, and her father and stepmother are loving and supportive. The music score is fun and different, and this is one movie I might even consider buying the DVD. I wouldn't be surprised if someone were to try to make a television sit-com out of it; I just pray they don't stick a laugh track on it.