Recent movies I've seen

I rent and watch good movies as often as I can.

The latest I've seen:

The Queen by Stephen Frears A good movie with an excellent performance by Helen Mirren (Oscar winner for her role in this movie).

The Asphalt Jungle by John Huston A classic Film Noir that somehow I had never seen until now. With an excellent cast, featuring James Whitmore and a very young and unknown Marilyn Monroe in a small role. It earned an Oscar nomination for Sam Jaffe, the excellent actor of many movies including his great performance as Gunga Din and also as Professor Barnhardt in The Day The Earth Stood Still, one of my favorite movies. Asphalt Jungle has also a good performance by Jean Hagen, the vacuous obnoxious blond in Singing in the Rain. The B&W photography is first class.

Flags of Our Fathers by Clint Eastwood Somehow I did not like this movie. It is certainly a good story, but I found the narrative tedious and the movie much too long. He could've cut a good ten minutes and kept it within two hours long. Now I have to see his next movie, the story told of Iwo Jima from the other side in Letters from Iwo Jima, which I heard was better than the first one.