Beowulf: *** (out of a possible **** stars)

Ah, the classic tale of lust, pride, and greed. But enough about me. It seems there's no middle ground as far as opinions on this film go; everyone I've talked to who's seen it either liked it a lot (like me), or completely hated it. It doesn't stick to the book very closely from what I've heard, but then again the book IS the oldest novel written in the English language (seriously), so maybe it's not a bad thing to modernize the script a little bit. Critics have complained that the animation is rubbery and creepy, but I found it impressive how recognizable they were able to make the actors. I didn't know who the main guy was (Ray Winstone), but he did fine, and the rest of the cast were all actors that I knew, including Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Angelina Jolie, Crispin Glover (George McFly!), Brendan Gleeson (Hamish from Braveheart, Mad Eye Moody from the Harry Potter Films), Robin Wright Penn (Jenny! from Forrest Gump), and Allison Lohman (White Oleander, Matchstick Men, Flicka) - who's actually like 28 years old, even though she always plays a teenager (which is good, 'cause then I don't have to feel guilty for thinking she's sort of foxy). Anyway, this film BARELY gets away with a PG-13 rating, and probably just because it's a cartoon. It's pretty violent, and there's a surprising amount of nudity as well; some intended to be funny, some erotic, and some just plain awkward, like Beowulf's naked fight with the monster. Still, I thought the movie was entertaining, and like all straight men I can certainly sympathize with the characters dilema (C'mon, honestly, who WOULDN'T risk cursing their entire village for a single night with Angelina Jolie...even if she was a subhuman demon?).

Cloverfield: *** (out of a possible **** stars)

Sort of the new decades Blair Witch Project, only better and with a much larger budget. The commercials were intentionally and understandably vague, but even after watching the film there's still a lot of unanswered questions, questions that various websites have attempted to answer with a variety of different theories. All in all I thought it was a very clever film, and there were certainly plenty of tense moments. I'm still not sold on this "through the lens of the camera" way of filming, however. Granted, it does elevate the suspense by giving you a feeling of actually being there, but when the characters are running (which is often, in this case), the footage becomes so shaky it's hard to concentrate on what's going on. This is the first film ever that actually made me physically ill - both my wife and I became nauseaous trying to follow the jerky camera work. Definitely not for viewers who suffer from any kind of motion sickness, but for those who don't I strongly recommend that you check it out.

The Eye: **1/2 (out of a possible **** stars)

Fairly creepy at times, though not terribly original (it borrows elements from The Sixth Sense, as well as Stephen King novels like The Dead Zone and Insomnia). It's interesting though, as most of the recent Asian horror remakes are (The Ring, The Grudge). At the very least they seem to understand better than American writers that fear is built through actual suspense, rather than pointlessly graphic violence. All in all, I'd say it's an above average horror flick. Oh, and yes, Jessica Alba is still hot...