Mrs. Mau and I have been on a slight Blockbuster spree lately. Over the past week or so we've seen:

• The Prestige
• Casino Royale
• The Number 23
• Stranger Than Fiction
• Serenity

(For us that's a spree.)

Anyway, the brief reviews first:

• The Prestige: 8 on a scale of 1 - 10. Good story. Good effects. Good ending.
• Casino Royale: Also an 8 on the scale. Maybe even an 8.5.
• Serenity: This one's more of a niche movie. If you wanted to see it, you probably REALLY wanted to see it and enjoyed.

Now for the meat:

The Number 23

This was just a weird, bad movie. Don't read this if you plan on seeing it, and don't want me to spoil it. Jim Carrey plays an average dude, who finds a comes across a book about a more-than-average dude that is slowly being driven crazy because he keeps finding occurrences of the number 23 in his life. The disturbing part is that Jim's character also keeps finding odd parallels between his own life and crazy dude's. He's put over the edge when the character kills someone. Somehow he arrives at the (correct) conclusion that the book is some kind of thinly-veiled confession of a real murder. The kicker: Jim's character actually wrote the book, and the book IS about him. It's all very weird and stupid.

Stranger Than Fiction

When this one was in the theaters I wanted to see it, but never made it happen. The main character is Harold Krick, played by Will Ferrell. Harold is a decently likable, if extremely boring, guy. One day he starts hearing a random voice narrating his day-to-day activities. For a while he's moderately annoyed about this, but he's coping reasonably well until the narrator lets it slip that Harold will be dying soon. Rather than going quietly into that good night, Harold sets out to confront his would-be killer. Along the way he falls in love and resolves that he's okay with dying. (He doesn't die in the end.) A thoroughly charming movie. I quite enjoyed it.

The Ten

Mrs. Mau caught a sneak preview of this one with her best friend. No matter what the trailers look like, don't let them convince you to see it. My interpretation of her feelings on it: It's bad. It's stupid. You'd be better served by sitting in a tub of ice-cold water and slitting your wrists. With a dull, rusty razor blade. It's. That. Bad. Don't see it.

Holla.