Koma

A Hong Kong horror film involving an organ thief, a love triangle, and characters named Ling, Ching, and Ming. I got lost. It's not great.

The Visitor

A quiet, sober film that reminds me of "Starting Out in the Evening." A lonely professor finds a couple living in his apartment, and he gets involved in their lives. The new friends and experiences open his eyes and, as is clear from the powerful ending, he learns to live again. The plot intelligently takes on our country's immigration policy. I love the scene where one character says almost under her breath that the US policy reminds her of Syria.

Heavenly Creatures

Peter Jackson directs this true story of two girls in New Zealand whose budding Sapphic love disturbs their parents, and the girls resort to extreme means to stay together. This is it, as far as answering my question about what Jackson film led people to think he could make "The Lord of the Rings." The storytelling and acting is far beyond the other films he made up to this point. He improved even more with his great, subsequent "The Frighteners."

"Heavenly Creatures" also features elaborate, creative special effects sequences where he tries to evoke the fantasy world the two girls create. They are writing a fantasy novel together, and every so often the characters come to life, the girls are dancing in a castle, and once -- one time -- a ring drops on the ground. A ring!

The Legend of Drunken Master

For a long time, I've wanted to see good Jackie Chan films, but I've found his oeuvre impenetrable because he's made, like, a gagillion films. And of course by oeuvre, I don't mind stuff like "Rush Hour," "Rush Hour 2," or dare I say it, "Rush Hour 3." But then I saw this movie listed on Time Magazine's list of the top 100 films of all time, and I thought this might be a good place to start.

As a side note, I wouldn't put too much stock in the Time list. After all, I assume it was compiled at least in part by the ridiculous Time critic who raved about "Superman Returns," which in this critic's opinion was a shockingly terrible movie.

As it turns out, the questionable validity of that list does not detract from the quality of "The Legend of Drunken Master," the story of a drunken boxer who is tasked with recovering a Chinese artifact before the British ship it out of the country. It's all poorly dubbed, although not nearly to the comedic effect of other Hong Kong martial arts films. Of course, dialogue is never the reason to see a movie like this. Rather, we want the action. And while I generally find most action sequences dull and I can take 'em or leave 'em, these fights were some of the more impressively choreographed and executed fight scenes I've ever seen. Though I'm sure films influenced this, I'm equally sure this film directly influenced "Kung Fu Hustle," "Kill Bill: Vol. 1," and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," especially in its depiction of an ax gang and the fight in a two-story restaurant.

Now that I've seen a great Hong Kong Jackie Chan film, I'd like to see another, but I'm still left with the daunting task of deciding which of his other umpteen million films to see.

81st Annual Academy Awards: And the films I haven't seen are . . .

For me, the big categories are best picture, director, screenplay (original and adapted), all the acting categories, foreign language film, and documentary. By my count, one would need to see 28 films to see every nominee this year.

Here's what I've seen: two films that received best supporting actor nominations, two films nominated for best original screenplay, and two films nominated for best documentary. I have at home a DVD that received a best actor nomination, but I haven't seen it yet. So what about the other 21? They haven't been released on DVD yet, which means they came out within the last couple months.

Some have questioned the wisdom of my one-man boycott of every film released in December. After all, if I want to watch good movies, shouldn't I just watch movies released in December and boycott movies the other 11 months of the year? I might be better off, but I'm sticking to my plan. It's the principle that matters. The problem isn't that Hollywood releases bad movies; they always have, they always will. The problem is that they horde the supposedly good stuff and try to manufacture interest by this big spectacle called the Oscars. And this critic, because he views movies, is supposed to care about these awards and have an educated opinion about these movies he hasn't seen. So he's supposed to go to theaters with other like-minded film viewers and bear witness to the best of the year. Well, I refuse. I'd rather watch "Rambo" a second time. But I probably won't.

24: Redemption

Yawn. Oh, pardon me. I've been sleeping for the last 90 minutes or so watching an imposter "24." It's like watching "Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning" masquerading as an entry in the esteemed series, even though Jason Voorhees doesn't terrorize the campers. It's like watching the imposter Bond film "Never Say Never Again," even though it has no Broccoli producing it, has no characteristic Bond title theme, has no one-liners, and is a poor remake of "Thunderball."

No "We don't have time," no Bauer as we know him, no well done action sequences. Just real time, real dull. Not a fan.

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three

I watched this because I read the remake will be the next Tony Scott movie. Readers of this blog may know that I think Tony is one of the best directors working today. This movie is about four bandits who hijack an NYC subway car and try to make off with a ransom. It's got a retro '70s appeal and a killer ending. Me gusta un poco.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Everyone's favorite son of the devil with his horns cut off whose girlfriend is Selma Blair is back!! And it's a seemingly endlessly creative take on the tired comic-book-adaptation genre. I know that I blinked while I watched it, so I know I missed some good stuff -- it's that packed with visual goodness. Guillermo Del Toro is an impressive director, and producers should continue to give him buckets of money so he can make expensive, pop-culture-rich blockbusting spectaculars like this.

Encounters at the End of the World

The inexplicably appreciated and prolific Werner Herzog machine keeps on churning out poorly narrated documentaries. This time he tries to cash in on the recent South Pole craze (see "March of the Penguins," "Happy Feet," "Surf's Up," "The Thing," etc.). His style -- this is not my kind of style. Except for a few wry observations about his interviewees, I don't find his insights that, well, insightful.

Snow Angels

Lives intersect in a small town as tragedy strikes. Blah, blah, we've all seen it before. Other than an inspired choice of setting the opening credits to a high school band playing Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer," I can't think of a reason for anyone to see this.

The Foot Fist Way

"Hot Rod" meets "Redbelt." A struggling dojo owner tries to keep his marriage intact while he inappropriately teaches and disciplines his martial arts students. It's okay for a cheaply done, handheld-camcorder-filmed-looking raunchy comedy, but a lot of the jokes fall flat. Awkward humor is not always my bag. Although, one line from the movie is stuck in my head. In a tender moment with his wife, the main character means to say, "I'm vulnerable," but instead says, "I'm penetrable." That's precious.

The Fall

"The Princess Bride" meets "Pan's Labyrinth" meets "Beau Travail." Visually, it's simply stunning. Plotwise, it's zzz. . . Too bad.

Paranoid Park

By my count, this is the fifth in an occasional series by Gus Van Sant exploring the ways people walk. This time, we watch a young sk8ter boy walk through the city of Portland. Van Sant also uses a level of slow motion not seen since "The Passion of the Christ." There's a backstory of skating culture and a murdered security guard, but its secondary to the walking. And for a 90-minute film, it felt to me like it was twice as long.