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I wonder how this film would be judged without Spielberg's name attached. My feeling is it would be hailed as a masterpiece. However, with great achievement comes great expectations. Most of those expectations will be exploded by the end of Munich, the least Spielbergian of Spielberg's films. Firstly, there is no obvious hero here, and that is the point. Terrorism and anti- terrorism drags all of humanity into an unheroic world. Witness Avner's reaction to the young Israeli soldiers who revere him when he returns from his mission: He doesn't believe he is a hero. Secondly, the pacing will alternately disorient, lag, overwhelm and frustrate. I would argue the beginning of the second act owes heavily to The Day of the Jackal, a film which also tried to demonstrate just how banal the days of an assassin can be. Tony Kushner, best known for Angels in America, writes scenes that disturb. They may irritate you at times, but you will remember them. In Munich, one such scene is the sex scene that ends the movie in which Avner is dreaming about the murder of the Israeli Olympians. It seems so ridiculous at the time, but days later you will still be haunted by it. Finally, Munich's point-of-view may come as a surprise considering it was directed by the man who won so much acclaim for Schindler's List. Of course, you would think Spielberg's sympathies would lie with the Jewish state created after the very Holocaust he set his most acclaimed film during. But Munich is a nuanced piece that takes a horrible event that solidified most of the world behind Israel and shows how Israel's response, to hunt down the planners of the kidnapping, turned into something just as unjustified.

Just perused the current list of top TV shows — CSI:Everywhere, Special Law & Order Unit, Crossing Jordan — and was wondering what ever happened to detective stories with detectives in them. Not that all the pretty faces on these shows don't do the job of detective (the late Jerry Orbach is the exception), it's just that they have all the personality of alphabet soup. I wonder if movies like The Thin Man could even compete with these flashy, juiced-up shows, or, for that matter, if Magnum P.I. would find a place on the network's schedule. But then I think — who cares? The Thin Man series (and Magnum, too) are there to be adored but anyone lucky enough to come across them. Such charm has rarely been seen in the movies, and I'm not talking about Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando showy charm. I'm talking about characters that are as comfortable talking to high society as they are to thugs and more comfortable with the thugs. I'm sure if The Thin Man were released today some alphabet soup organization, Dads Upset over Drinking (DUD) or some such nonsense, would be picketing over alcohol's prominent place in the Charles' lifestyle. As the other detective here would say, "Phooey." Drinks for breakfast, drinks on the job, nightcaps — these are important as any plot developments in these films. They give the pictures a gauzy atmosphere, as if by watching them, you might feel a little tipsy. But don't be fooled, the plotting here is like clockwork. If you check your watch at the first shooting, you'll notice it's exactly at 45 minutes. And then the fun begins. Beautifully realized performances down to the ittiest bit player, check out the decrepit butler for a comic touch later riffed on in Mary Poppins, fun production numbers — it's all here and none of it is show and tell — it all serves the king, in the case of any Dashiell Hammett, the story.

Those that complain that Philip Glass's scores are obtrusive, should watch Dark Blue. The music, a cross between porn music and bad sitcom music, ruins many scenes, making it difficult to get into what is otherwise a decent, sometimes brilliant, script. If you're going to spend all this money on a cast (Kurt Russell, Ving Rhames, Lolita Davidovich, Micheal Michele, Brendan Gleeson, Scott Speedman) and recreating Los Angles after the Rodney King riots, why hire such a hack? If the sound in a movie is supposed to create 30% of the emotional intensity, it seems silly to go through all the energy of producing a movie, when the highest score you can obtain with a bad score is 70%. The fact that it gets the 70% is a tribute to some fine performances and a fine job of capturing L.A. Collateral did a better job of capturing the city at night, but Dark Blue does a nice job of capturing it in the day. There are many imperfections here, especially the big speech Russell gives at the end, but the interesting ways things tie together overcomes them. Particularly impressive is Speedman, who plays the role Ethan Hawke played in Training Day. Maybe my expectations of his work were low and maybe working with Russell inspired him, but he turns in some nice work as the ethically challenged new guy. Maybe they should have hired him to do the soundtrack.