The raves for THE INTOUCHABLES baffle. It's at best a predictable, unconvincing, ingratiating, cliched, slight fable that offers the occasional weak laugh, elevated to "better than doing nothing" thanks solely to the leads' performances which are far too good for the material. As for the race controversy, the public discourse seems to consist entirely of some people saying "IDK this film is kinda racist because [list of empirical reasons]" & other people shouting "No it's not! [Ad hominem and/or ad natio attack]!" Yeah, that's always productive.

I loved Les Mis and do not apologize for it. It would have been nice if reviewers who have a problem with its overt Christianity had the integrity to say so instead of contorting themselves, in some cases to a comical degree, to appear to have hated it as fashion and their perceived majority readership require, but that is apparently too much to ask. I love the music, and had no problem with their having erred on the side of having good acting with okay-to-good singing instead of the reverse. Sure there was some strain etc. but I don't go to a movie primarily for the singing, even if it's a musical. Crowe seemed to have a surprising "can't-chew-gum-and-walk-at-the-same-time" kind of problem going on with singing versus emoting, but I found that oddly endearing. He looked scared & stressed out, so maybe it's that heretofore-unseen vulnerability.

The Hobbit was too long and too loud but I love Freeman in the role and the Gollum scene was spellbinding.