At the movies

I'm just back from Curse of the Golden Flower a Chinese piece of palace intrigue and occasional martial arts. It's only the most recent of a long string of films I've seen lately. In theater I've attended: Apocalypto, The Fountain, The Prestige and Casino Royale. On video I've watched: Das Boot, The Bourne Supremacy, Miami Vice, Lucky Number Slevin, Thank You For Smoking, The Big Blue, The Perfect Storm, and Man of Aran. I'd recommend Wolfgang Petersen's Das Boot to just about anybody who can handle subtitles and Mel Gibson's Apocalypto to anyone who can stomach very graphic violence; both are well crafted and highly potent films.