So since the last time I felt like writing I've seen a whole string of films, most of which I'm not going to write full reviews on, at least unless I see them again, which for most of them probably won't happen.

Knowing

Knowing takes a somewhat decent premise, of children being mysteriously communicated to, and predicting future events, and manages to wring all interest out of it with some truly terrible execution. Every performance in the film is truly terrible. Nicholas Cage is at his very worst, and even someone I find to be quite charming, Rose Byrne, is belting out terrible stuff to the cheap seats. The twist at the end is at least moderately interesting, but not nearly enough to save the film. Grade: D

Brüno

The follow up to Borat, Brüno, is not nearly as insightful, or as hilarious as its predecessor. It's attempts at satirizing American homophobia don't land, though it does have some interesting insights into celebrity culture, and the quest for fame.; A great performance from Sacha Baron Cohen, who seemingly never breaks character isn't enough to make the film anything more than just a quite amusing distraction. Grade: C+

Fanboys

After seemingly an eternity of production and release delays we finally got to see Fanboys, and it was ultimately kind of disappointing. Instead of the hilarious look into fan culture, and what makes people fanboys, we just got a pretty standard road trip film. There are some amusing moments, and it's nice to see Jay Baruchel, and Kristen Bell (especially Kristen Bell) with some major screen time in the film, but it really isn't all that good. I particularly disliked Seth Rogen's parts in the film. I'm normally a fan, but found both of his characters to be extremely one dimensional, and not at all funny. Grade: C-

Second Skin

A much more interesting look at a certain subset of fan is Second Skin, a documentary about MMORPG players (specifically World of Warcraft and Everquest 2). It was available for free streaming online, and I had to take a look at it while it was there. I found it to be fairly insightful, if a little too forgiving towards the gamers. We get to see how an obsession with online gaming effects the lives of an entire group of people, often in negative ways. It's a decent documentary that's worth checking out. Grade: B-