"Sunshine," "Interview," and "The Simpsons Movie."

Sunshine- Danny Boyle is a director of many talents. His resume is as impressive as it is diverse ("Trainspotting," "Shallow Grave," "28 Days Later," "Millions"- all good things). So the thought of him taking on horror/sci-fi was very exciting. Sadly, "Sunshine" does not measure up. What's so disappointing about this film is how Boyle manages to bring virtually nothing new to the table. The premise is great. The sun is dying so a crew of scientists has been sent to restart it with a very large bomb. Unfortunately instead of building an original story around this premise, Alex Garland's screenplay is cobbled together from bits of "2001," the "Alien" series, and an episode or two of "Firefly," just to name a few of them. Icarus II is the name of their ship, which of course means that Icarus I didn't complete the mission. There's the obligatory tension amongst the crew of people who couldn't be more different and the inevitable moment when they discover that the previous crew, long thought lost, may still be alive. Thanks to Boyle's visual flare and cinematographer Alwin H. Kuchler, this is all very nice to look at and Cillian Murphy and Chris Evans do their best as the two crewmen at each others throats. But none of this can change that there's nothing terribly inventive here and the ridiculous twist in the last 20 minutes didn't help matters. 5.5/10.

Interview- Pierre Peders (Steve Buscemi, who also co-wrote and directed) is a serious political journalist who's been assigned to a story he believes to be far beneath him. He's sent to interview movie and TV mega-star, Katya (Sienna Miller). Pierre and Katya meet in a restaurant for the interview and it only takes moments for the two to be at each other's throats. Still, when Pierre is injured in a car accident, Katya feels responsible (Pierre's cab driver got into an accident while shouting to Katya on the street), and takes him back to her apartment to put some ice on his forehead. The rest of the film is an evening long conversation between the two polar opposites. One minute they're eviscerating one another, the next they're connecting. It goes back and forth like this but for the most part it works very well. The flow of conversation and mood comes across as natural and the performances of Buscemi and Miller are outstanding. The two play off of each other very well and in spite of the extreme unlikability of the characters, "Interview" never ceases to be intriguing. Worth catching if you can find it. Tomorrow is its last night in Seattle at the Metro. 8/10.

The Simpsons Movie- I've only seen a couple of new episodes of "The Simpsons" in the past few years. It's not that I thought it stopped being funny, it's that I just felt like enough was enough. Still, it's one of the greatest shows in the history of television so I was going to make a point of seeing the movie. It's very hit and miss. The biting social satire that made the show so great for so long only rears its head every once in awhile here. Stretches of it are pretty lifeless and I was left with an overall "meh" feeling. Although seeing Professor Frink on the big screen was pretty awesome. Not bad but pales in comparison to the show on even an average day. 6/10.