Don't Be Afraid of the Dark: Don't be afraid of this movie!

Sally moves into a new house with her father Alex and his girlfriend Kim. Shortly thereafter, she begins to hear noises and learns that they are not the only ones in the house. But are these other inhabitants friendly or evil?

For a film that was supposed to be thrilling and/or suspenseful, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark certainly failed to be either. The story, which was based upon a 1973 made for television movie of the same name that apparently haunted Producer and Screenwriter Guillermo del Toro so much that he had to help remake it, focused on a family dealing with a group of bizarre creatures (fairies perhaps as the film was never too clear on the origin of the nasty little things) that threatened to destroy them. But the members of the family were so bland or annoying that the audience could not get involved in their stories. Katie Holmes was somewhat believable and likable as Kim, the new girlfriend who was trying to win over Sally, but her performance was not enough to lift the whole film beyond dismal. And then there were the creatures, who did not strike fear into the audience and seemed more silly than vicious. Plus Kim, Alex and Sally never took, what would have been, the easiest action in order to defeat the creatures (kick the damn things, they're smaller than you are!)

You should be afraid of this film for if you watch it, you will have wasted an hour and forty minutes of your life.

Grade: D

The Peacemaker: Another "comfort" movie

Some films get lost in the shuffle and can only truly find their audience if: 1. Word of mouth gets around amongst a group of friends and spreads or 2. TBS, TNT or one of those other basic cable networks continuously shows a movie, so much so that it grows upon a viewer after the tenth time they've watched on a boring Tuesday night. The Peacemaker is one of those films which will hopefully fall under the first category.

Terrorists have stolen a number of Russian nuclear weapons and the task of hunting them down falls upon nuclear weapons expert Julia Kelly and her military liaison Tom Devoe. And even though they have differing views on who was responsible for stealing the weapons and why, they find that they must work together in order to prevent a possible nuclear disaster.

From the beginning sequences, which showed the hijacking of the nuclear weapons, to the explosive conclusion the film moved at a non-stop pace as Julia and Tom attempted to hunt down the weapons of mass destruction. The action sequences were intense, though not excessively gory or ultra-violent and they were expertly edited together so that the audience was held breathless while watching them. The film succeeded due to the performances of the two leads. Nicole Kidman proved she could play a powerful woman in charge of not only scientific matters, but military ones as well. George Clooney did a good job portraying Tom Devoe as a “Clooney-esque” character. His Devoe was smug, smarmy, charming, and full of himself yet able to show compassion and emotion. Plus he had no problems effectively pulling off the action hero role. Clooney and Kidman shared a dynamic chemistry on screen which, along with the action and suspense, made The Peacemaker an explosively entertaining action thriller.

Grade: B