I watch a lot of movies on DVD, and very few in the theater.  I bought a blu-ray player (see January post on this) over Christmas Holiday, and, coupled with my Pioneer Elite 50" plasma,  have found that the home theater experience brings me even closer to that of the movie theater, but without the noisy people and possible projector or sound issues.

So, here’s what I recommend and don’t recommend you see:

Mongol: a great film about the early years of Genghis Khan, first in a planned trilogy of films.  The film is beautifully acted (by people I guarantee you haven’t seen before), photographed, and directed, by Sergei Bodrov. There isn’t a tremendous amount of dialog, so the fact that there are subtitles isn’t a big deal.  The young boy who plays Genghis Khan as a child is truly amazing.  I look forward to seeing more films from this very talented director and his equally talented cinematographer.

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Cadillac Records: I know a few things about the history of music in the United States, but rarely have seen any focus on some of the greatest American blues musicians who ever lived, Muddy Waters or one of the greatest harmonica-players, Little Walter, and Howlin’ Wolf.  This film makes these three musicians its central narrative figures and the actors who play them all do a good job, as does Adrian Brody, who plays the founder of Chess Records.

Beyonce plays Etta James, and I think she sounds really good singing these older tunes than she does singing the crap that is written for her.  She should talk to Mark Ronson (who produced "Back to Black" for Amy Winehouse) about producing her next album and sing songs that really showcase her voice. 

The film isn’t flawless by any means; it becomes a formulaic biopic in places, particularly towards the end, though it is redeemed from being a ‘movie of the week’ with good editing and pacing in the first 3/4 of the film.  Also, Cedric the Entertainer is the wrong guy to be doing the narrative voiceover (or at least uses the wrong voice to do it); it sounds more like an educational exhibit at Disneyland than a film narrator.

Twilight: I will save you a lot of time, time that I wished I had back: don’t see this movie. 

If you are not a teenage girl (and even then, the appeal is tenuous IMO), you will find this film badly acted (in some cases laughably so), badly directed, with a mediocre script and–most mystifying of all–bad makeup that at one turn makes the vampires look green and at other times makes them look reasonably healthy, with no discernible logic to the changes.

Yes, this film has and will continue to make boatloads of money and there will be sequels until Obama’s daughter is running for President against Chelsea, but, trust me, you have better things to do than watch this.

Australia: Another movie you shouldn’t see.  You may think, seeing that the movie stars Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman, and is directed by Baz Luhrmann (who directed Moulin Rouge, another film I didn’t get, but a lot of people loved) and is about a scenic and interesting country (want to guess which one?), that the film would have a lot going for it.

Well, guess again. The film seems to be played like an early 1960s historical comedy and is over the top.  I made it through the first 20 minutes and then gave up on it.  Again, you must have better things to do.

Beverly Hills Chihuahua:  now you’re going to say to yourself, if you’ve read this far, that if I didn’t like ‘Twilight’ and ‘Australia’, I certainly wouldn’t like this film.  But, surprisingly enough, I really liked this film.  This is especially surprising since I dislike even the concept of Chihuahuas in real life.

This film really worked for me for a couple of reasons: the voice talent was excellent, esp. Drew Barrymore as the heroine of the film–she did a great job, as did her German Shepherd friend, her boyfriend Chihuahua and the leader of the wild Chihuahuas.  I’m too lazy to remember the actors’ names, but they were good; the script was actually pretty funny consistently but at the same time straddled the line between telling a story and poking fun at itself pretty well.  Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a Jean Luc Godard film by any means, but it was much better than I was thinking it would be.  I actually look forward to seeing a sequel.