Roger Ebert Movie Review

Weekend Box Office: December 28-January 1, 2008

National Treasure: Book of Secrets tops the box office with $54.5 million

Daily Box Office: Wednesday, January 2, 2008

National Treasure: Book of Secrets tops Wednesday's box office with $4.3 million

"There Will be Blood" (R, 158 minutes). Daniel Day-Lewis in a virtuoso performance as an obsessed loner, starting with nothing and becoming a California oil tycoon, in a live dominated by greed, duplicity, hatred and loneliness. Paul Thomas Anderson's epic is ambitious and relentless as the study of a human monster. Magnificent visuals created by cinematographer Robert Elswit and set designer Jack Fisk. A debatable ending, and its reach exceeds its grasp, which is not a dishonorable thing. Rating: Three and a half stars.

The Rape of Europa / *** (Not rated)

"The Rape of Europa" (Unclassified, 117 minutes). A startling documentary about the extent of Nazi looting of art treasures during World War Two -- incredibly, totaling a fifth of all Europe's significant artworks. Many of them, stolen from their Jewish owners, have surfaced mysteriously in galleries and museums, leading to efforts to regain them by the rightful owners. Covers Hitler's "shopping lists" and his mad scheme to build the world's greatest museum in his home town. Narrated by Joan Allen. Rating: Three stars.

The Whole Shootin' Match / **** (No rating)

By Roger Ebert Eagle Pennell died a "hopeless drunk," according to a memorial article in the Austin Chronicle by his friend Louis Black. His other friends would have sadly agreed with that. He was 49 at his death, in 2002. Twenty-three years earlier, in 1979, he wrote and directed a film named "The Whole Shootin' Match" that you may never have heard of, but which had a decisive influence on American independent film.

The Orphanage / ***1/2 (R)

"The Orphanage" (R, 106 minutes). Raised as a girl in an orphanage, Laura (Belen Rueda) returns as an adult to buy it and run it as a hospital for needful children. Married with a young son, she begins to have disturbing ideas and visions, and her son sees ghosts, or maybe they're not ghosts. A superior psychological thriller by Juan Antonio Bayona, produced by Guillermo del Toro ("Pan's Labyrinth") and depending not on shock but on a sense of mounting dread. Rating: Three and a half stars.

City Lights / **** ()

"City Lights" plays through Jan. 3 in a new 35mm print at the Music Box. This is my "Great Movie" review. By Roger Ebert If only one of Charles Chaplin's films could be preserved, "City Lights'' (1931) would come the closest to representing all the different notes of his genius. It contains the slapstick, the pathos, the pantomime, the effortless physical coordination, the melodrama, the bawdiness, the grace, and, of course, the Little Tramp--the character said, at one time, to be the most famous image on earth.

Great Movie: The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

By Roger Ebert Homer thinks maybe they should stop at his Uncle Butch's saloon for a drink before they get home. "You're home now, kid," the older man Al tells him. Three military veterans have just returned to their hometown of Boone City, somewhere in the Midwest, and each in his own way is dreading his approaching reunion. Al's dialogue brings down the curtain on the apprehensive first act of William Wyler's "The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946), the first film to win eight Academy Awards (one honorary) and at the time second only to "Gone With the Wind" at the U.S. box office. Seen more than six decades later, it feels surprisingly modern: lean, direct, honest about issues that Hollywood then studiously avoided. After the war years of patriotism and heroism in the movies, this was a sobering look at the problems veterans faced when they returned home.

Movie Answer Man: Here's an intriguing Credit Cookie idea for the end of 'Charlie Wilson's War'

Q. You said the final image of "The Assassination of Jessie James" was a Credit Cookie of the last shot of "The Great Train Robbery," with the cowboy firing his gun at the audience. That gave me an idea for a post-credits final image for "Charlie Wilson's War." As the film implies at the end, the aid to Afghanistan had an eventual blow-back, helping fuel the creation of our enemy Al-Qaeda. How about an Afghan fighter firing rockets at Russian planes, then turning his weapon on the camera and firing right at the audience. Rhys Southan, Richardson, Texas A. An intriguing idea, but some readers inform me Al-Qaeda did not precisely emerge from the forces we supported and did not use those weapons against us.