October 2008 [b]Charade (1963)[/b] All Star cast and a twisty intrigue story with a lot of goofy moments. There have been plenty of better spy spoof since then and now a lot of the banter and developments are predictable. If you like Grant, Hepburn and Matthau, though, it\'s plenty enjoyable to watch them do their thing. [b]7/10[/b] [b]Fireproof (2008)[/b] The most enjoyable bad movie I\'ve ever seen. There\'s a lot to commend in Fireproof. The beginning is rough, and I was worried that the stilted writing and unsure acting was going to continue. Fortunately, the leads end up being more than competent (especially Erin Bethea), and the story begins to take off with a lot of nice touches. There\'s some humor that works in the way it was meant to, and there\'s at least one scene that\'s properly thrilling as well. Some of the supporting cast is abysmal, but others feel right at home. For such a modest budget, this is a great looking movie and I think we\'ll be seeing better and better things from the group that made it. It won\'t appeal to anyone who doesn\'t already agree with the message, but it is certainly nice to hear \"don\'t follow your heart - lead your heart\" from a big screen. I\'m awarding it an extremely generous [b]5/10[/b]. Please reward my generosity and give me at least a 6/10 movie next time. [b]Final Destination (2000)[/b] Kind of fun as an X-Files reunion - writers Glen Morgan and James Wong were frequent X-Files contributors and some of the supporting cast have been guest stars. Nothing too great here - it\'s certainly not scary or particularly well acted - but it does have an original idea going for it and follows through. The opening credits is the creepiest part of the film. [b]6/10[/b] [b]The Bank Job (2008)[/b] Slick movie with an enjoyable cast of mostly unknowns that explores the execution and aftermath of a bank robbery. [b]7.5/10[/b] [b]The Running Man (1987)[/b] Decent movie in that its dystopian themes seem in certain ways prophetic. However, it\'s cheesy to the max - and while Arnold\'s one-liners can certainly add to a movie (see:Commando), it didn\'t help Running Man. The gravity of the life and death situations as well as the totalitarian state seem watered down by the tongue-in-cheek approach. It isn\'t able to balance its themes against dark humor like Battle Royale did so well. This isn\'t a thinking man\'s sci-fi - it\'s John Matrix in a yellow jumpsuit. [b]5/10[/b] [b]The Thin Red Line (1999)[/b] I hated Malick\'s recent \"The New World,\" and so I went into this guarded - wanting to like it, but ready to hate it. I recently watched Saving Private Ryan and thought I\'d get a different viewpoint on the same subject. Well, this is no SPR. It starts off slow, but for about an hour and 15 minutes in the second act, it\'s a great war movie. Then the last 45 minutes drug worse than the opening and left me waiting for it to end. I\'m vocally not a fan of Malick\'s style of voice-over musings, though here they seem to be fairly substantial and some actually made me think. Jim Caviezel shines in his role as do Nick Nolte and Elias Koteas (Casey Jones!)... and Woody Harrelson blew his butt off. I appreciate this film but it\'s not something I would care to sit through again. [b]6/10[/b]