I would love to start off my blog discussing a wonderful, independent film that completely astounded and amazed me--Unfortunately, the last one that I saw (Snow Angels) supremely disappointed me. So instead, I'm going to tell you how much I enjoyed Get Smart. Although not an academy award winner, this film definitely made me chuckle and there are a couple of one-liners that are pretty clever. (One of my favorites is when the Chief compliments Max on his essay about existentialism and Max says that he left it blank--and the Chief thought that was genius!) What I really wanted tonight was to have a laugh and Get Smart accomplished that with flying colors. Of course, some of the funny parts were seen in the preview but there is enough leftover to do the job. And I even laughed at the stuff I had seen before. All in all, a bit of fluff that I found pretty enjoyable. On a scale of four stars, I give it a 2 1/2 for cute fun.

Now to get a bit more serious--there is a must-see film that I had the opportunity to watch at the Chicago International Film Festival: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. If you have the opportunity to see this film, do so. It examines the Holocaust through the curious eyes of an eight year old and truly puts the evil that adults do to one another in perspective. His innocent inquiries into the logic behind what is being done to his friend and others in the concentration camp effectively emphasizes the inhumanity of the atrocities that were committed during World War II.