★★★½ Syriana

[Gino: 4.0, TwoShoes: 3.5, Tiny: 3.5]

Gino says: "First off, if you try to keep everything straight when watching this: forget it. Better to sit back and let it wash over you. If you do that, I think you'll enjoy it. Something about this film (maybe the less-slick-than-I-expected production and the fact that you don't really understand eveything being said), kinda gave it a stong feeling of realism to me, even though I have never been witness to an oil company board room or an Islamic school or an oil pipeline. Some of the actors don't feel like actors at all. Others you are kinda always 'aware of', like Goerge Clooney or Christopher Plummer or Chris Cooper, but are still good. Interestingly, the film itself never really brings home the fact that oil dependence is really also a problem of individuals (you and me) not just corporations and governments. This made it kinda less preachy and therefore more entertaining, I think. We have documentaries to preach to us, after all. Not my more coherent review, sorry."

Tiny says: "I watched this on New Year's Eve and really liked it. I do not think I would pass a quiz if one were given on the plot, but it is one of those movies where this is unimportant. The movie is engrossing. Also, I realize that I understand so little about oil politics that it is impossible for me to judge whether this movie is a completely over-the-top fantasy or whether it is just a dramatized version of the kinds of things that really happen. I can confidently say, however, that it is the most exciting movie that will ever be made that has due diligence of a merger as a major plot element."