I really enjoyed this. It’s a cool, indie, film noir mystery, set in a southern California high school. Surprisingly, this really works. I knew all that from the press about it. What I hadn’t realized is that it is completely a retro Raymond Chandler/Dashiell Hammet story in modern trappings. The plot, the characters, and most importantly the dialog are all totally 30s/40s noir. It works in the same way that Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo + Juliet” did.

I expected this to suck, and it kinda did. The underlying idea was actually kinda cool, once it all came out, but there a lot of things wrong with the execution. Like, you could write a good book along these lines. You might even be able to make a good movie of it outside of Hollywood. So, possibly a good source of ideas if you’re writing a book or running an RPG like Call of Cthulhu. Otherwise, probably not worth your time.

Very well done, and full of lovely Keira Knightly. As is typical of period society dramas, there are several characters in dire need of a smack upside the head. It’s just part of the story. Donald Sutherland is lovely and endearing. He makes me cry at the end. If you’re in that Merchant Ivory groove, you’ll love this.

French action movie, about 5 IQ points higher than your typical American b-grade action movie, but it’s no “Demolition Man”. Good fight choreography and excellent Parkour-style chase scenes. Probably worth seeing if you like Jet Li movies.