Quick movie reviews
Collateral
Director: Michael Mann
Starring: Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Mark Ruffalo, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Bruce McGill
Intense, smart, and intelligence filmmaking, that is, until the final formulaic twenty minutes. Although cliched, the final few minutes are still thrilling. Cruise is truly and finally awesome (I always hated him) as a villain and Foxx is great as the cabbie/victim tagging along.
(update 8/12/04: I also really hated the use of Audioslave's "Shadow of the Sun." The scenes where the song was inserted were just wrong. I did love the use of a Korean version of Paul Oakenfold's "Ready, Steady, Go," though).
Grade: B+

Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle
Director: Danny Leiner
Starring: John Cho, Kal Penn, Neil Patrick Harris, Paula Garces
Hilarious, hilarious, hilarious. I found it to be even funnier than Dodgeball (and I thought that was really hilarious!). Great cameos from Ryan Reynolds, Jamie Kennedy, and Fred Willard.
Grade: A