I remembered when the movie The Exorcism of Emily Rose came out in theaters initially about 4 years ago.  It was right up my alley because the dark trailers I had seen for it looked like something that would be thought provoking and different, as religiously toned movies, especially ones that are at all even loosely based on true stories, often are.  I thought it was along the lines of another religiously themed thriller/horror movie I had liked a lot with Patricia Arquette called “Stimata”, and it was sort of the same deal.

While I will say one of my complaints about the movie The Exorcism of Emily Rose is that sometimes the writing came off as hokey or cliche, I think the acting was very solid, and included a great cast of actors and actresses, including Emily played by the same woman who plays Dexter’s sister on the series about a serial killer called Dexter on Showtime, and Laura Linney, as always was good as the attorney who is reluctantly assigned the case to defend the catholic priest who is being tried for “negligent homicide” in the death of Emily Rose, because of a series of exorcisms.

Tom Wilkinson does a great job as the priest being tried, Father Moore, and Campbell Scott, whom I hadn’t seen in anything in years, was great as the attorney on the plaintiff side, the people.  What was interesting about this movie was that it was based on a true story, however I came to find out it was VERY loosely based on real events that occurred in Germany back in the seventies, where a woman by the name of Annelise Michel.

The real story was interesting and compelling, but the movie spun it as a supernatural occurrence while it sounds like the real life story was really an unfortunatel  series of mishaps for a seriously mentally ill young woman who was most likely schizophrenic.  The movie definitely took a lot of liberties and while the directors say they wanted to present both sides of the story and let the audience make up their mind, they definitely went for the supernatural, mystical angle. 

It worked - it was compelling and well directed, but the writing and scenarios could have used some work.  A good example of one hokey part (spoiler alert), was when one of the main witnesses is run over right in front of the defense attorney.  Oh, and they must have added scenes later, because there are two scenes where Laura Linney is clearly wearing a really bad wig, so there were some cases of bad editing that took away from the credibility of this otherwise solid movie. 

We just started season two of the acclaimed HBO series “The Wire”, and I must say, although we started off slow on this and questioning whether we really liked it or not, we are now as addicted to the show and the characters as we were to The Sopranos.  In keeping with the tradition of great scripts and even better acting, The Wire is a superb show that focuses on the characters and makes you like all of them - from the killer thugs to the hapless bystanders to the cops that chase them down via elaborate wires and various other methods of secret surveillance.

The Wire is about a group of detectives and cops that are assembled to help bring down a new drug ring - at least one that’s new to them, that’s becoming a little too violent.  The show is set in the slums of Baltimore, and the first season centers around an investigation and subsequent uncovering of a drug ring run by Avon Barksdale.  Barksdale remains an elusive character until one cop who pretty much keeps his mouth shut on works on his miniature pieces of furniture figures out who he is by putting a name to a face from a local boxing club.

We are introduced to so many character this first season that we can barely keep their names and faces straight, but we ultimately end up caring about what happens to each and every one of them, which is a hard thing to do for most television shows, especially where the line between good and bad becomes very thin and unrecognizable in most cases.

Now that we are on the second season of the series, we can barely wait to watch the next one, and it’s not because each episode ends with some huge cliffhanger, it kind of ends on a low key note, like the Sopranos usually did, we just genuinely can’t wait to see our characters in action and what’s going to happen in the next one and how the plot develops.  The plots are original. 

Those that expect a lot of violence like the Sopranos has may be disappointed though, it’s low on violence except few scenes that graphically depict murder scenes, but the disturbing graphic violence of the Sopranos caliber won’t be found here, and it’s actually refreshing and it works because the series still maintains that gritty, slightly reckless tone.  I’d definitely recommend this to anyone who can follow a script for a while without getting impatient and can get the names down before giving up on it - it’s well worth the wait. 

Well, this was an interesting movie, and brought back an old favorite, Marisa Tomei, who noticeably walks around topless for a few scenes in the film, and I must say as a fellow woman, she’s still looking pretty smashing for being in her forties!  Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke play brothers in this movie, one seemingly on the borderline of being a sociopath until we see some real emotion come out later, played by Hoffman, and the other a sniveling cry baby who seems to have a good heart, but also blames others for his problems and is not averse to taking the easy way out for any sort of predicament - a coward, if  you will.

The movie is one about what seems like a victimless crime, thought of by Hoffman, the “bad” brother, and is carried out by his cry baby brother played by Hawke who turns in a good performance as well alongside the formidable Hoffman, which is much to say about acting abilities when you can hold your own beside a pro. 

The brothers hatch a plot to make some extra money, which they are both in desperate need of, for different reasons but both through faults of their own, to rob their mother and father’s jewlry store.  When things go horribly wrong, the events are told in a flash forward, flash back sequence, with a sort of weird format that I didn’t like, and you’ll know what I mean when you see the film. 

The problem I have with this movie is that I just didn’t care about these two brothers.  Instead of feeling sorry for Hawke, I didn’t care if he spent the rest of his miserable life in prison, since he seemed the type that would push you out in the middle of traffic if it were between you and him getting hit by a car.  As far as Hoffman goes, it seems the film maker teeters between trying to make you dislike him and feel sorry for him, both of which are unsuccessful, at least for me.

Tomei puts in a good performance, but we’re unsure of what her character’s point is, other than providing what seems like gratuitious sex scenes and topless eye candy.  If I were her, I’d wish the film I’d bared it all for several times grabbed the audience a bit more and stuck with you.  All in all, I can’t say I disliked the movie, but it wasn’t up to snuff for the actors that were in it, including Albert Finney, who did a great job as the father who seems to have some problems of his own.