Blog of Leonid Mamchenkov

I am not a big fan of Julia Roberts. In fact, I try to avoid her more often than I try to see her. That was one of the reasons I skipped “Mona Lisa Smile” when it was in the movies. Recenlty though I saw a trailer again and decided to get the film on DVD.

Directed by: Mike Newell
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Cast: Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ginnifer Goodwin, Dominic West, Juliet Stevenson, Marcia Gay Harden, John Slattery, Marian Seldes, Donna Mitchell, Terence Rigby, Jennie Eisenhower, Leslie Lyles, Laura Allen
IMDB raintg: 6.1
My rating: 5.0

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Watched an amazing drama “Closer” on DVD.

IMDB rating: 7.2
My rating: 9.0
Celebrity highlights: four people out of four people in the movie were played by Jude Law, Clive Owen, Julia Roberts, and Natalie Portman.

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Finally I watched “Conspiracy Theory“. I saw bits and pieces of it on TV several times, but I never managed to see the whole thing. Finally I did.

It turned out to be not as good as I was expecting or imagining it to be. Lots of boring story telling, wierd plot, and long pauses. There was not enough action. Considering the fact that one of the best action actors - Mel Gibson - is in the movie, that sounds like a terrible mistake. The guy was still excellent. Oh, and the music was good.

6 out of 10.

Watched “Steel Magnolias” on DVD. I’ve seen it before, but for some reason my memory kept no record of this film.

IMDB suggests a “Comedy/Romance/Drama” categorization for this movie. I do disagree a lot with this. This as pure drama as it can get. I mean there are, of course, ways to laugh at diabetics woman who, despite all doctors’ advice, gives birth to the baby, than needs a kidney, which than provided by her mother, and than dies anyway… But this movie is not about laughing at these things. It is about how life can be tough sometimes. There are a few jokes, sure. But those are only used to help people to get through difficult times. There is no comedy in that.

I liked this movie a lot. It has nice character development and attention to details. Everything and everyone look so real that I got glued to the movie from the first few minutes until the closing titles. There is plenty of good acting too. And the story is good. Not very original, but good.

I think that a 7 out of 10 would do this movie justice.