The Spanish language horror film called “The Orphanage” was one I put in my Netflix cue just because it was recommended by their automatic recommendations system after it’s tallied all the other genres and types of movies I tend to go for.  Apparently this recommendation feature is pretty good, because most movies it’s recommended so far are pretty high up on my “like” list.

The Orphanage has a very talented cast, headed by a woman who plays a mother to a young boy named Simon, prounounced See-Mone in Spanish, in case you’re wondering and want to prepare for the movie a bit.  We find throughout the movie that the woman has puchased a former orphanage on the beach with her husband, the orphanage that she actually came from as a child before being “rescued” by adoptive parents.

The house is huge and creepy, which adds to the element of the creepy factor for the movie, which runs longer than the average film of this nature, but it flies by with no problems at all.  The fact that it is set on a beach where the sun hardly ever shines adds to the eerie factor.  We find out that her adopted son, Simone has a grave illness throughout the film, and the film goes through most of the story trying to figure out where her son has disappeared to after he claims that he talks to other children that no one can see but himself. 

The poor mother is put through the ringer, but we find her conviction in finding her son to be compelling, and she portrays a concerned mother and strong woman very well, even in the face of her husband leaving the house because he can’t face what’s become of them after they have lost Simone. 

The cool thing about the Orphanage is that it accomplishes the creepy, jumpy factor without relying on obvious scenes that make one squirm, but rather, good old fashioned timing.  Accept for a few scenes that will probably leave an impression on you, and I don’t necessarily mean in a happy, good way, this movie was a superior modern day horror film with a twist that was unexepected.  It is a sad ghost story essentially, but it’s so clever in it’s angles and quiet suspense that you can’t help but think about for days after you’ve seen it. 

After watching Michael Moore’s documentary style movies, Bowling for Columbine, about high school violence, and Farenheit 911 as well as his other one about the car industry, who’s name escapes me at the moment, I thought I’d at least find his latest documentary movie about the terrible state of the American health care system, “Sicko” entertaining, or thought provoking, but what it ended up being was a message laced, agenda driven movie that was anti republican in it’s agenda.

It actually seemed very sensationalistic to me, and I think I stopped watching around the part where Moore takes a boat full of people in dire need of healthcare who can’t afford it for one reason or another and are being turned away by doctors, hospitals and the health care they should have a right to, to Guantanamo Bay prison, where prisoners sadly get better health care than the millions of uninsured Americans who’ve done nothing wrong.

This part seemed particularly sensationalistic and exploitative in nature and it really turned me off from his movie making efforts.  I suddenly saw Michael Moore as an opportunist of sorts, someone to come in and criticize a system and make a public cry for reform, but with no solutions to offer. 

He spends the majority of the documentary demonstrating how much better healthcare is in other parts of the world, such as France, Cuba, and Canada, but also leaves out the factors that make this sort of public free or almost free healthcare possible.  Such as the fact that Canada doesn’t have to have an army and therefore can afford this sort of public healthcare system, or that Britain and France tax the hell out of it’s citizens.  He brings this point up, but only to show how comfortably it’s citizens still live. 

I just thought he could have presented other sides of the story a little better, but he really only presented the points that best supported his agenda for this movie, which was to point out, yet again, more ways in which America sucks.  Sorry Michael, this one really turned me off, and I’m willing to bet you turned a lot of other people off too with this latest self promotional attempt at pointing out the injustices we suffer. 

As a girl who has a boyfriend who is an avid comic book reader and endlessly interested in the movies that are based on comic books that have been coming out and slaughtering all other movies at the box office, I was thinking that Iron Man might be just another average comic book based movie.  But I was wrong.  Iron Man, starring the very talented Robert Downey Jr., who brings a fresh breath to the bad ass comic book heroes with a breath of real humanity and humor, was a thoroughly enjoyable flick.

The movie was directed by Jon Favreau, who’s come quite a long way since his first big role in Swingers, the cult classic that launched a bevy of catch phrases years ago.  Favreau clearly knows what he’s doing being the director’s lense, and he had a great vision with who he wanted Tony Stark, Downey’s character to be and how he wanted the other characters around him to interact with and complement his personality.

Jeff Bridges is excellent in his supporting role and barely recognizable with a shaved head and beard, and even Gwyneth Paltrow, whom I’m usually hard to warm up to, played her role as Mr. Stark’s nerdy assistant of years and his only real loyal friend to perfection.  There is so much that Iron Man has to offer, and it’s amazing that it does it with only moments of the movie being about Downey in his super hero outfit that makes him Iron Man the superhero.

There’s a lot fo comedic acting that is done well, including by Terence Howard, who plays another friend of Stark’s, and Downey himself is probably the best comedic actor of the bunch.  I can’t help but root for Downey in this role as well knowing that he’s suffered through some serious pain and addictions throughout his life and has come out of them only to rise above it and create this great new character, and make it totally his own thing. 

The audience loved the film, and we left the movie looking forward to a sequel, which will most definitely happen.  There is also a teaser at the end of the movie with Samuel L Jackson playing a character from the Avengers, hinting at a coming Avengers movie, which will include Downey and Jackson playing their respective roles.  All in all, Iron Man was great, every bit the blockbuster it was reported to be before its release and making up for box office disappointments like Speed Racer and a lack of other good films to go to the theater to see.