and two more brief movie reviews

Damn, my unemployment is leading me to the movies more than I thought. Here's two more movies I saw today...

Zack and Miri Make a Porno
So, brief disclosure...I used to love Kevin Smith. Still do I guess... but I was way into Clerks, Chasing Amy, and, yes, most of all Mallrats when they were out. I haven't like his latest movies including Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob, Jersey Girl (didn't see it), etc. But "Zack and Miri" looked like it could be good.
I don't know if I'd say it was great...not really sure how to describe it. I will say that Justin Long is in this movie and he is really fricking awesome. There are some very funny parts and there are some gross parts. But the bottom line is that Seth Rogen is adorable and I think I would watch him in anything. He has the ability to deliver Kevin Smith's biting, expletive-filled, graphic rants about sexual positions and then in the next scene be totally vunerable and romantic and sweet. Hard to pull off but he does it effortlessly.

Eastern Promises
Yes, I know, this came out a year ago. BUT, I just saw it on HBO so that counts, right? I avoided this movie like the plague last year because I don't really enjoy the director David Cronenberg's work (A History of Violence, Existenz, Crash, The Fly). For some reason I had this movie totally wrong. I guess the trailer misled me because the film was totally different than I thought it would be. And I can honestly say that I really enjoyed it. Viggo Mortensen is amazing as usual and I was surprised at how good co-star Vincent Cassel was. Glad I was sitting at home this rainy afternoon. :)