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There are so many moments in BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN where you wonder, doesn't anybody just cry it out once in a while? Having recently gone through a heart-wrenching long distance relationship, I know the anguish these men wore on their faces. It's no chore, probably even for utter homophobes, to get over the gay thing. The film deftly handles how they consummate their love, making it seem raw and tender and genuine, not flirty and flamboyant as gay men are so often portrayed in pop-culture. In fact, it doesn't really feel like a "gay" film, it's just a plain old love story which is gut-wrenchingly sad. That said, I couldn't help but wonder if this could have been one for the ages. They're calling it the gay Gone With the Wind, but it's more emotionally spare than that.

Heath Ledger is a force on screen. In a moment at the beginning, he has the look of a lost 5 year old boy. He's laconic not to be cool or tough, but because deep inside he trembles at the entire world. It's a simple look, probably unplanned, but he shows just a little the inner turmoil that he cannot let loose. He's not just a closeted homosexual, he's closeted about everything.

This film might run away with the Best Picture Oscar and years from now people will remember a defining moment (perhaps) in the gay rights movement. This could be, in a way, the gay "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" Perhaps not a flawless masterpiece, but a humanizing look into the taboos of our times. Just like all classic screen lovers, you yearn for them to make it out together and happy, but the prejudices of others always seem to end that, don't they. Overall, an excellent film, certainly nothing too salacious for even your most staunch Republican conservative male. Surprising as it may sound to say it, this film was just a bit too chaste, but I suppose that's more an issue with our times.

I may be one of the few, but MUNICH shares more similarity to Spielberg's worst film (in my opinion) THE TERMINAL than it does to the MUNICH-compared films SAVING PRIVATE RYAN and SCHINDLER'S LIST. MUNICH starts as strong as any film this year, with a sequence that illuminates the historical realities of the 1970's; Americans (supposedly Olympic athletes) help the terrorists get over a fence into the Olympic compound. It's a possibly un-aware reference to America's bumbling foreign policy of "helping" other countries out.

Anyway, the action picks up quickly and major players are introduced in classic Spielbergian ease. The film may be ambiguous in its politics, but it's precise in its dialogue and character setups. Everyone has their dye cast early on, so you can see their developments ahead without giving away too much. What follows the fractured sequence involving the hostage crisis is a swiftly paced action story about the Mossad hit-squad put out on the terrorist's tails. As the assassins begin to see the humanity in their targets, the film begins to lose its way, until eventually the weight of Eric Bana's guilt derails the film into its frustratingly imprecise third act.

The film is gaining praise around the world for its daring stance on an epic, historical struggle between the Jews and Islam. But where the film does attempt a more balanced look at the struggle, it misses its mark trying to defend its three hours, finished with a too-long "you can't go home again" sequence.

It's a noble effort, perhaps, but certainly far from the best Spielberg has done. Perhaps he was so aware at how controversial the film would be for its subject he never scrutinized its narrative arc. What starts as an action movie with a conscience ends with a boring denouement for Bana's Hero of Israel. He realizes he may have enjoyed killing just a bit too much. This has been done before in better films. I'm a huge Spielberg fan, but I won't defend this as greater than a 7, an earnest attempt but it misses its mark.

I had heard the rumors, read the reviews, but nothing, and I mean nothing, can prepare you for the absolute cinematic atrocity that is Bewitched. Worse than a misfire, this movie so obviously didn't have a finished script before it was fast-tracked into production that the third act is part of an entirely different film. This movie doesn't work, ever. Only funny moments are when the camera is left on Will Ferrell long enough for him to improvise, and his character's anguish over being a successful actor reduced to a slapped together new project is hilariously meta-movie.

Oh, this is bad, bad movie. It is an awful movie. There's an old Far Side comic portraying the writers of the original sitcom of "Bewitched". One pitches that Endora puts a curse on Darren and nobody can figure out what's going on for a half hour or so. I imagine given a similar comic on the writers of this film, it would be something more like incomprehensible notes scribbled on a napkin from the Coffee Bean as the writers literally phone in the new pages to the set. This film is so painfully unfinished in its basic script form that I marvel it ever was released. A team of veteran filmmakers all collaborated for this rushed, insipid piece of completely incomprehensible drivel. How does something like that happen in today's carefully constructed Hollywood corporate structure?

Skip this movie unless you are truly masochistic and can't stand to enjoy any of cinema's truly more enjoyable films than this. How bad is this film really? It makes Catwoman look like Citizen Kane. It makes that schlocky student film about the freshman waking up late for class and complaining about nobody understanding him look like...a much more entertaining version of that premise. Bottom line; this movie is awful. DO NOT SEE IT!!!

0/4 stars