A semi-retarded man, Karl, got out of the mental hospital because he killed with a sling blade his mom and his mom’s lover, mistaking the heat of their loving making for causing injury to his mom. He found a job at a local lawn-mower repair shop and befriended a 9-year-old boy, who lived with his Mom and the memory of his Dad who committed suicides years prior. Unfortunately, his lonely Mom got hooked up with this violent boyfriend who bestowed terror on the family and Karl, who now lived in their garage.

As a way to for Karl to get the family out of the grip of the boyfriend’s violent streak, he decided one day after being kicked out of the garage to do something about it. He walked in the family house and chopped in half the head of the boyfriend with a lawnmower blade.

I’m not sure if this final action is called for as there are ways to get rid of the bad boyfriend. In those days before the enactment of the tougher domestic violence laws nowadays, it’s probably hard to find an alternative except getting out of the small town once and for all. Of course, for Karl, in his simplistic mind, that was the only way out of the complicated world. He did manage to confront his drunken father and got some of the issues out in the open, including his father’s killing/burying alive of his baby brother.

Billy Bob Thornton’s acting as Karl was fantastic and very believable – better than Dustin Hoffman in the Rain Man. His way of talking in the movie sounded like Yoda in his own simplistic and innocent way. It’s probably hard to understand without the subtitles. John Ritter also acted as a gay, sincere, and helpful friend to the family. The boy performed quite well in his helpless and yet brave role.

Overall, this was a story of several tragedies but heart warming to see how the participants helped one another to cope with them within their circumstances.

The ghostwriter of the memoir for the ex-prime minister, Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan), of Britain died in the process of wrapping up the book. A new ghostwriter was hired and he may just run into a similar fate as he uncovered strange connection of the prime minister’s past in Cambridge University to a conspiracy. The story of how he became interested in politics from theatrical arts/acting because of meeting his wife, Ruth, simply didn’t add up chronologically. Stop reading here if you don’t want me to ruin the ending.

The clues started to fall in places when he followed the ex-ghostwriter to the last place he visited – the old classmate of Adam Lang, Paul Emmett and link Paul to CIA. He concluded that the Prime Minister was hired by CIA and working for CIA all these time.

After Adam was assassinated, the memoir book was released and the ghostwriter’s job was done. Was it? The final twist was that he discovered that the real CIA agent was Adam’s wife, Ruth, who he saw talking with Emmett at the celebration party of the book release. He confronted Ruth through a note passed to her. And the last scene of the movie was someone, presumably, the ghostwriter, was run over by a fast car, thus the highlighted “Ghost” in the movie title.

The movie was interesting and kept the audience guessing why the original ghostwriter died and what transgression Adam Lang committed, other than the war crimes of handing the terrorist prisoners to US. Though Adam Lang’s accomplishments in UK resembles that of Tony Blair, who cooperated very closely with US during the Iraq War. Is it a fictionalized conspiracy or is it a real conspiracy? Very interesting indeed. I enjoyed the movie. Highly recommended.

Wow, started watching this because of good review on Netflix. Never knew how a couple or any people can be so cruel to each other. It’s so emotionally draining!

While guzzling down bottles of booze, the dysfunctional couple went at each other verbally and physically in the presence of another couple. All the resentments, disappointments rose to the top and burst, fed by the dynamics of the other couple. They were “games” played – the hurt games and there were lies, like the boy they never had to keep the audience interested. This movie reminded so much of the marriages I know at the ICU death bed. Nowadays, people simply get divorced and moved on. But the brave ones remain in the marriage to fight it out just like the movie. It’s sad. Life is too short for that.

Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were wonderful in this movie. I can see how this script could make a good Broadway show: 3 acts and lots of acting and conversations – probably too much conversations for today’s audience. Would I recommend this movie? Maybe, to the people in terminally-ill marriages.

A woman writer fell out of love with her husband and went on a spiritual journey to find happiness and finally met the man of her love. Along the way, she traveled to Italy, learned Italian, met new friends. In Italy, she drew metaphor of the thousand-year Roman ruins to her own life. What a mess it was. She pitied herself. Then she traveled to India to learn meditating from the Guru and met Richard from Texas, who taught her to forgive herself and love herself again. Then she traveled back to Bali to meet with the smart fortune teller, Ketut, who taught her the life balance and to love again. In Bali, she also fell in love with Felipe, who almost ran her off the road who fell in love with her.

I like and enjoy this movie and recommend this movie to anyone gripping with life balance issues. You don’t have to pray and meditate but sometimes it’s the wondering mind that tricks us into thoughts that steer us away from our true life meaning. Julia Roberts acts so well in this movie, very believable. The beautiful scenery of Italy and Bali is a big treat. Makes you want to travel too.

Samir Horn (Don Cheadle), a child witnessed the death of his father in Yemen from a terrorist-planted car bomb. Fast forwarded to the present. He started out as an undercover agent selling bombs to terrorist. But one of the operations blew up, thanks to non-cooperation between FBI and CIA; he was captured as a prisoner in Yemen. While in the Yemen jail, he was recruited to be the bomb technologist for a major terrorist organization. Starting out planting a bomb in the American Embassy in Nice, France, he rose to top of the terrorist organization to work on the next big plot. Somehow, Samir ended up killing his contact at the CIA in order to protect his cover. Now, he became a real terrorist. By foiling the master plot though killing all 30 suicide-bomber operatives in one bus and ambushing the heads of the terrorist organization, he found himself all of a sudden became a hero, an honor he would rather not take.

So he is a traitor to the Islam jihad. But his loyalty lies in the God of his Islam religion.

This is a very good movie and it kept me on the edge of my seat throughout the movie. It shows the twisted perspective of the terrorists and the ambivalent feelings of the Muslims toward the terrorist. Very interesting. Highly recommended.

A shrink (Kevin Spacek) for the big stars in Hollywood had a burn-out and a drug problem from his work and his wife’s suicide. A young girl (Shemma) was having issues dealing with her mother’s suicide. By helping her and another client, the shrink was able to help himself and found himself a love of his life. Finally, they all ended up in movies roles: writer, producers and etc. It’s like having a movie within a movie.

There were several other interesting characters to keep the movie interesting: an obsessive-impulsive-disorder talent agent, a self-sacrificing, door-mat, talented, pregnant surrogate secretary, over-the-hill sex-addicted actor (Robbin Williams), a drug-addicted handsome actor on top of his game, and etc.

Kevin Specek was getting really old with baggy eyes and smoking non-stop – not a good model. Good acting, nevertheless.

The moral of the story is that people will do what they do (like suicides or drugs) and they need not have a reason. The people who are impacted need not to seek the reason but instead should try to be happy as much as they can and make the best of it. It’s OK to moan and grieve but don’t destroy your own life. That’s the way!

I was more familiar with Capote’s “Breakfast at Tiffany.” Got to know a little bit about the writer from this movie: his friendly and gregarious personality. Truman Capote put all his soul and energy into investigating the facts for the “In Cold Blood” book about the two murderers of the 4-member Clutter family in Kansas, all for $50 instead of $10,000 they expected to rob them of. Capote somehow got very emotionally involved with one of the killers, Perry Smith, who had the similar upbringing and abandonment issues as Capote’s. At the end, Capote had to wrestle with his conflicting emotion of wanting them to be executed by hanging so he can finish his book and that of seeing the deaths of his “friends.” Very good acting by all the actors and the extra features of the DVD on Capote’s background and the making of the movie gave the audience more perspectives of the movie. This got me curious about the “In Cold Blood” book, I’ll definitely read it. I also discovered that his best friend, Nelle Harper Lee, is the author of “To Kill the Mockingbird.”

Truman Capote died of alcoholism at the age of 59 in 1984.