mshires

"Running Scared" defines Cinema Extreme. Why this film isn't doing better at the box office is both sad and puzzling. Word-of-mouth should be keeping this film at the number one spot, yet it died in the first week. We're down to two performances per day in Austin; it is certain to disappear in most places this Friday. First, I think the title is misleading and frankly, lame. This movie is one wild ride, better than going to any theme park. Wayne Kramer is a genius so I'm guessing the guys at New Line didn't really know what they had with this film, thus an extremely poor marketing job with an afterthought title tacked on. Since Kramer also wrote it, I wonder what his original title was? Paul Walker is incredible as Joey, a low life hoodlum who disposes guns used in mob killings. And Vera Farmiga lights up the screen. Together, they generate more steam than I've seen in any NC17 movie, let alone any R rated film, all in the pursuit of taking the audience on the hottest, wildest, mind boggling-est, guns-blazing-est movie experience of all time. This may not be the best movie ever made, but out of thousands of movies I've seen, this one is the absolute most memorable one. Why you're not standing in line right now at the box office trying to get a ticket to this, is one stupid mystery.

All romantic comedies follow a standard formula: Boy meets girl. Boy gets girl. Boy loses girl. Boy gets girl back. As the audience, we're supposed to enjoy the How of the formula. And often times that formula is very entertaining. Along comes this refreshing, unpredictable "Little Black Book" that does not follow the familiar formula, yet is a romantic comedy -- and a very well made one, I think -- the cumulative vote so far is less than 5. Makes no sense to me. Here's what you get with "Little Black Book." An intelligent script well directed. Brittany Murphy is impressive in a very seamless performance. Julianne Nicholson practically steals the show. Plus Josie Maran steams the whole thing up. What else do you want? 7 out of 10