I’m baffled by some of the reviews I’ve seen of this film. I saw it this weekend and think it’s really strong. Clive Owen and Jason Statham are both excellent as… elite killers. The action is great, the story is intricate and watching the plot unfold is just fun. You’ve got a group of mercenaries on a dubious mission, a group of ex-SAS stumbles on to them and then both sides are trying to figure out who the other guys are and what they’re up to. Maybe it throws some people that there are no clear cut good guys and bad guys here. Both sides are essentially bad guys acting out of a questionable sense of what is right. But that’s what made it interesting to me.

The film is at it’s best when Owen and Statham are on screen together either coming after each other, fighting or staring each other down. Add a gun wielding, ass kicking De Niro into the mix and I’m happy sitting in a dark theater and munching popcorn.

I’m losing faith in this forum and some of the people that vote here… How can you possibly rate this film as a 1 or 2 or 3? Each to their own I suppose and for whatever reasoning or motives… For myself, I found this movie to be excellent. It held my interest from start to finish – and the finish was satisfying. Gandolfini and Travolta were excellent as you would and should expect. Salma Hayek gave what I think should be an award winning performance. Jared Leto was also superb… I can’t say I’ve noticed him in anything of note before this. It was also nice to see Laura Dern again – I’ve been hot for her since watching Rambling Rose : ) All I can say is watch this movie and decide for yourself. I definitely recommend it.

A woman who refuses to speak, her piano, and her daughter are sent to New Zealand for an arranged marriage. She suffers torment and loss when her husband sells her piano to a neighbor.

I found so much to like about this movie, because I thought it was such a true reflection of life as many of us know it.

First there’s this girl. She’s no million-dollar babe but she’s cute and she’s sexy enough for men to find her desirable. And she’s just working her way through the menu. Many of us find ourselves young and okay-looking, and we don’t know what is out there but we know we like a good time in bed, and we’ll go with what comes along because we’re horny and we have itches we like to scratch.

And then, out of nowhere, unsought and uninvited, something in the form of someone comes sneaking in, and creeping under our skins, from nowhere, and strange things and strange strings start to pull at the heart, until we suddenly realize that penises and vaginas all point north and south, but there is something more to be held and cherished. We suddenly find a face we like to wake up next to in the morning, and there’s this shape and this warmth and this musky fragrance left over from our union that just feels and smells so good it brings a smile to our faces and is enough to have us get up and go put the coffee on, every morning.

That’s what I loved about this movie. And that’s what is so very special about this movie. If you are old enough to have lived through that sense of invincibility and invulnerabilty that comes with the swagger of youth, and then found yourself lucky enough to meet and get to love a person with enough heart and soul and beauty to keep you coming back for more, then you appreciate the beauty of this movie.

More power to you Stella! Where were you when I needed that special and beautiful and unique kind of someone and that kind of love to come along and bite me in the ass, and keep me waking up next to her ande wanting to make her coffee? My baby. It was good for me!

And if this kind of beautiful epiphany hasn’t happened to you, you don’t know what you’ve missed, so keep knocking the movie until it happens for you!

This movie really proves that the world is all too often an unfair place, especially the world of motion pictures. “The Assignment” received barely any attention upon it’s release and not surprisingly flopped at the box-office, but when history will be written this movie will most surely receive some long lost praise.

Thank God I’m surrounded by friends who knows what’s good for me. Being a movie buff like myself a pal highly recommended “The Assignment”, a movie I hadn’t even heard about. I decided to check out what Leonard Maltin gave it, and not surprisingly he gave it **1/2. Knowing that this is the same grade he gave classics like “Alien”, “The Usual Suspects” and “The Matrix” (I kid you not) I knew his meaning didn’t mean diddly squat jack s***. So without hesitating I went out and bought it on DVD. This was about 3 years ago and the movie is still one of my proudest belongings in my DVD collection, despite a cover design that echoes a low budget stinker with Casper Van Dien.

“The Assignment” is expertly directed, delivering some really intense moments that will hold you on the edge of your seat throughout the movie, on top of that it boasts an at times brilliant story that you know will be riddled with unexpected twists and turns. It stars Aidan Quinn in one of his best performances, and serves him with great support by Donald Sutherland and Ben Kingsley who are both in great form.

Something like 40 out of 42 user comments like this movie, most of them can’t seem to praise it enough. So what are you waiting for? If you call yourself a fan of action-thrillers you should have bought it, rented it, seen it YESTERDAY!

A woman is in love with a man in love with another woman, and all three have designs on a young man raised as an ape. If you like comedies like Being John Malcovich youll like this. Nudity is mostly covered by hair. Mostly very short clips.

If you’re looking for a science fiction flick that has nothing to do with little green aliens or intergalactic civil war, check out this film. A terrific story about a man waking up to find out that everybody in the world is gone. Vanished! He is the only one on Earth. A great part of the film deals with the struggle of having to be alone. Very original, very interesting, and very entertaining. Check it out.

Charting Barbara’s physical-psychological transformation with a dose of wit and sincerity (“I feel like I’m possessed,” she announces early on), the film’s first section takes us through her tiring months of pregnancy, portrayed here as an, er, bumpy ride marked by several downs (nausea, fatigue, confusion,) and a few ups, including an insatiable sex drive which she explains with the only-in-France comment: “I just want to get gang banged!” These moments culminate in a rather hilarious birthing sequence, proving that from the get-go, both Barbara and the incompetent but good-hearted Nicolas are not quite ready to be parents.

Relying on an array of stylistic devices – CGI, DV footage, magical snowfalls – reminiscent of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amelie, the narrative leaps forward with ease in its early stages, but once the family settles down in their cozy Parisian apartment, it loses traction along with some of its credibility.

For one thing, Barbara’s surprise with regards to the pitfalls of childbearing and rearing seems odd for a character who has the brains to attempt a doctoral thesis on Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractactus Logico-Philosophicus. As for Nicolas, he transforms almost overnight from a fun-loving man-boy to a corporate stiff incapable of holding down the most simple, adult conversation. Since neither he nor Barbara make real efforts to work out their problems, the denouement lacks dramatic pull, while the ending smooths things over in a neat but unsatisfying manner.

Despite such snags, A Happy Event definitely has its charms, many of them due to an energetic performance by Bourgoin that has her vomiting, moaning, and spouting existential philosophy, all while wearing a prosthetic belly. Given less to work with since the story is told almost entirely from Barbara’s POV, Marmai (Living on Love Alone) manages to offer some comic relief before his character fades away in the latter reels.

Tech contributions are solid, with colorful widescreen photography by Antoine Monod (The Last Flight) giving Paris a fairy-tale feel.