Movie Reviews *may have spoilers*

Ladder 49: Quite a downer. Joaquin Phoenix portrays a firefighter in the Baltimore fire department. The movie starts in the present and has flashbacks to the past. We see the guy start out as a rookie (proby), and how he meets his wife and has a family. I won't give away the ending, but it's not upbeat. I was disappointed because I felt like I had seen this movie before, only with some other context. I can't think of which movie it was similar to, but I'm sure it will come to me. Don't bother renting it unless you like Joaquin Phoenix, John Travolta, or firefighting movies.

The Grudge: Ok, DH didn't want to watch this one, so I watched it alone (with all the lights blazing) on Monday night. Sarah Michelle Gellar is a household aide who goes to work for an American (?) family in Japan. She only takes the case because the regular aide didn't show up for work. There were some scary parts to this movie, similar to effects in the movie "The Ring," but it did not disturb me the way "The Ring" disturbed me. Our dog didn't like the meowing sound coming from the tv. Heh. Although the ultimate crime was somewhat predictable, I still got a good scare from watching this movie. I recommend this movie if you like scary films, but not gory films. It was rated PG-13.

Catwoman: This movie was not nearly as bad as reviews say it was. Yes, there was a little too much computer-animated action, but I liked the idea of the Catwoman finding her inner power. Also, it was about a half-hour too long. See it if you want to see what all the fuss was about.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Jessica Biel starred in this movie from 2003, a remake of the classic 1974 film. I haven't seen the original movie, so I can't compare them. However, R. Lee Ermey steals the show as a psycho sheriff. See it for that alone! This movie was quite gory, including a suicide by gun at the beginning. Alas, what ruined the scariness of this film for me was that I had already seen "Wrong Turn," which basically has the same plot. Watch this if you're interested in that kind of film. (FYI: The "massacre" is an urban myth. Tobe Hooper invented it all on his own. Go check out snopes.com for further info.)