Holiday Movies

by SS Lau

There will be some 33 movies coming out this holiday season. So movie goers, this is a season to be joyful.

• "Life less than ordinary"---A forced romantic story. If you like Cameron Diaz, it maybe an OK movie to see, and kill a few hours.

• "Switch Back"---A murder mystery about a serial killer. This movie has not been receiving very good review, in fact it received one and a half stars in one review I read. I thought it was kind of interesting, and worth a look-see.

• "Mad City"---An intense movie about TV news and newsman. It gave a chilling account how an apparently innocent and un-intentional event led to an uncontrollable outcome. John Travolta shed his usual leading man appearance, and played a rather pathetic character. This is not a " Grand Escape" movie.

• "The Jackal"---A thriller about an assassination plot to kill the first lady by Jackal, the most feared and cold blooded killer. The story is fashioned after an earlier movie and novel" Days of the Jackal''. This new version is not as good as the first one.

• "Wings On the Dove"---A romantic story focused on a triangular relationship between an English reporter, a scheming English girl, and a dying wealthy American girl. The setting was London and Venice in place, and circa 1910 in time. It was pretty nice to see these two cities in the light of early 20th century. If you like this kind of movie in this kind of setting, then this is your movie. At the end of the movie, the reporter found himself in love with the memory of the now-dead American girl, but not in love with either one of them in person. For those of us who do not have a memory anymore, this becomes a silly thing to be in love with. In terms of being gratified with a sensation of " boy gets girl" from a moving goer who does have a memory still, this movie ends with " boy gets memory". It is not all that satisfying at all.