Movies of the week

The first movie we watched was "I Love You Phillip Morris," starring Ewan McGregor and Jim Carrey. Carrey played a gay con man who ends up finding the man of his dreams in prison. He has to keep conning himself in and out of prison to stay with his lover. This sounds like the premise for a terrible movie but it actually wasn't that bad. It had some quality funny moments. Both actors did a good job playing their respective characters and making it believable. Some have called it the best performance of Carrey's career. It's definitely a different take on the traditional romantic comedy.

"Casino Jack" was the movie we watched earlier this week. It stars Kevin Spacey playing notorious corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Abrahoff was a lobbyist in D.C. who boasted ties to the Bush Administration, especially Tom Delay. Barry Peppar played his sidekick and Jon Lovitz aided them hilariously in the plot to purchase a casino illegally. Abramoff and his pals bring hypocrisy to a new level, scamming everyone out of money, even the Native Americans. It's amazing how government scandal barely has to be altered to make a good Hollywood movie. Spacey was brilliant in this, as he is in most roles. His monologue in the bathroom at the very beginning was hilarious. He was nominated for Golden Globe for his performance in this.

Tonight we watched "Never Let Me Go," starring Andrew Garfield ("The Social Network"), Carey Mulligan ("Wall Street 2") and Kiera Knightley. This sci-fi drama centers around three students who think they are just sheltered students at a boarding school but make the horrifying discovery that they're nothing more than clones created for organ harvesting. It's based on the book by Kazou Ishiguro, which I hear is much better than the movie. It seems like the movie missed a lot of the back story/explanation. Instead it is slightly confusing and gets pretty boring. Even the excellent casting can't make this movie more interesting. Luckily it's only an hour and 45 minutes long. Chris thought it was one of the most boring films he'd ever seen in his life, although it got a 70% on Rotten Tomatoes.