Oh Tommy & Elina & Bruno...

Mission: Impossible III(dir. J.J. Abrams)
It's an effective yet impersonal action thriller. The high tech gadgetry in the film has more personality than the characters. Some of the action set pieces were entertaining like the ones set in Vatican City and Shanghai at night, but they're simply no match to the set pieces in an action movie like Live Free or Die Hard. As a spy movie, it's quite cumbersome and dull especially when compared to a film like Casino Royale, which is infinitely more engaging due to it's non-paper-thin characters. That film also allows it's audience to view the action without the overly shaky camera work and cut cut cut nonsense that plagues this film. You could easily make the mistake of thinking that Michael Bay directed this. It's still decent in it's soulless machine-like nature.
**1/2 out of ****

Amateur(dir. Hal Hartley)
When Hal puts emphasis on story instead of characters, his films suffer. This is definitely one of those cases. It expects the audience to have interest in this film about an amnesiac by having them ponder who is he? At least, that's what it seems to suggest with how the narrative plays out. Since this mystery isn't very mysterious, it's hard to really get involved with it. It definitely has it's moments, but much like The Unbelievable Truth, it doesn't really register emotionally or intellectually. I still recommend checking it out, though.
*** out of ****

Twentynine Palms(dir. Bruno Dumont)
It's one of those movies that you're glad you watched but probably won't ever want to watch again. That's not to say it's bad despite what most people will say. It just becomes excruciating before it's climatic and terrifying conclusion. While it starts off fine, there's just so much one can take of basically watching a couple burn time in the middle of the Southern California desert doing nothing much. Most scenes start off relatively sweet and turn hideously sour much like the film itself. It's hard to really describe the film preceding the last 20 minutes as sweet, but compared to those last 20 minutes, sweet doesn't seem that horrible of a description. Those last 20 minutes, which could be dubbed the "pay off" even though that makes me sound like some sadistic freak, are some of the most horrifying last 20 minutes I've ever seen. It makes the "build-up" seem worth it in some sick and deranged way. This is definitely a film that's hard to embrace due to it's unlikeable characters and extremely slow pacing, but it's still a film worth watching if you have the patience and stomach for it. I highly recommend.
***1/2 out of ****