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I rolled into TO for the last weekend of the 2009 TIFF (Toronto Int'l Film Festival) and went on a whirlwind movie spree, seeing nine movies in two days. Some, like My Son, My Son What Ye Done, were god awful, pretentious art-house junk and others, like Jennifer's Body, were pretty good, but head and shoulders above the other eight was Down For life. This gritty inner city drama, which is apparently a true story inspired by a New Times article, crackles with realism and the performers seem to be simply living rather than acting at all. The action scenes are gripping and look more like Youtube than Hollywood, thanks to the skilled direction of little-known director, Alan Jacobs.

Jessica Romero, was cast right off the streets of East Central to play the lead role of Rascal, the streetwise leader of a small women's wing of a Latino gang. The whole story takes place in a single chaotic day in her violence-filled life. Conflict surrounds her, both inside and outside the gang, as well as in the home. On top of all this is a looming deadline for entry to a summer writing program that Rasacal is being encouraged to apply for by a concerned teacher played by Danny Glover. The program might be an escape hatch to a better life or may just add to her problems. The crisp story moves along quickly and eventually takes us a scene so jarring that viewers seemed to jump back in their seats as one.

Down For Life is a current and raw film made in the vein of such inner city classics as Boyz n The Hood. It is an independent film and may be hard to find, but as the best film of 2009, thus far, it is well worth the effort. If you would like to read more of my reviews, slide over to realmoviereview.com.

I saw Jenniefer's Body in its third and final screening at the Toronto film festival and found it to be a pleasant surprise. This is a comedy/horror in the vein of an American Werewolf in London, and this genre has more than its share of video store dust collectors. Two names give this one a shot of avoiding this fate.

One is Diablo Cody's sparkling writing which though sometimes over the top, is interesting, amusing and at least makes us old geezers over 25, feel like we are in on the hippest new teen slang. Whether we are or not, how would I know? I haven't spoken to a teen since the last time I got a 2am Big Mac at a drive through.

The other advantage Jenniefer's Body has is, well, Jennifer's body. Hiring Transformers star, Meagan Fox, has gotten this film a lot of attention and even more so when word got out on what a sexy role the sultry beauty would be playing. She looks good (pronounced in this case as goooooooood) and puts in a pretty solid performance besides. This girl may still have a future when she stops spouting off yawning filler dialog next to stupid alien warbots that somehow felt that they should earn some extra product placement coin by turning into the latest model year of cars sold on a planet 800 zillion years from where they're from. Sorry. Guess I sprinted off onto a raving tangent for a second there.

Jennifer's Boday is the story of a couple of teenage friends. The applicably named everygirl is Needy (played by Amanda Seyfried), who finds herself torn between her sweet boyfriend, Chip (Johnny Simmons) and her hot, school ruling best friend, Jennifer Check sizzled up by the aforementioned Ms. Fox. The two friends head off to a local bar where Jenniefer is hot to hook up with a visiting band. They both have a night of their lives, but not in a good way. All young women at this age are undergoing a lot of changes, but not usually as extreme as Jennifer who might also be some kind of bloodthirsty, short-skirted monster. Its up to Needy to figure out whats going on.

With equal parts comedy, horror, gore and a little suspense mixed in, this film tries to do a lot, but never tries to take itself seriously, which in the end saves it from sinking into the crap pile. Some decent performers firing out Cody's Juno-style dialog make this one worth catching. If you would like to read more of my reviews, check me out at realmoviereview.com.

Here we have another family film about a boy and his beast. It's a cliché, but thats fine, if well written with some good dialog and interesting characters. The characters here are under-developed and really offer little of interest. The film lacks a decent villain and the dialog offers nothing clever or original.

The CGI is excellent, but that is not enough, anymore. These days we expect the CGI to be spotless, and should not be willing to make allowances on story and character because the CGI was good. I suppose there was a time, when a reviewer might note that while a story was rather weak, the color was striking. Those days are gone...

The Water Horse is a mediocre film and should be seen by kids who express an interest or by grown ups who want to see the 'Nessie' mythology illustrated and built upon, but really, for other viewers, there are better choices out there, aren't there? Check me out - realmoviereview.com