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Greek cinema doesn't boast many good films, and when a film like "Kavafis" comes out, people take notice. The film has beautiful scenes from 19th and early 20th century Alexandria, Constantinople and Athens and a wonderful score from the famous Vangelis (of "Chariots of Fire" fame). Most Greek films never reach a level that "Kavafis" has in these aspects. However, the script and story is so poor that "Kavafis" reveals little about the poet's life and inspiration and makes a movie that has so much potential utterly disappointing.

Director Smaragthis does two controversial things with the film. First, he has Cavafy speak no lines in the entire film, except for voice-overs of his poems. This decision is understandable considering that we only hear the true words of Cavafy in a film about him. Can't do much better for historical accuracy I suppose. However, for an audience, scenes where everyone else is speaking and Cavafy is sitting silently seem very odd. The times where Cavafy opens his mouth to speak and then suddenly doesn't are almost comic.

The second controversial aspect of this film is the fact that the movie deals only with Cavafy's homosexual love life. We learn very little about his family, education and inspiration for his poetry. Someone who had never known Cavafy before this film would think that all Cavafy did all day was lurk the dark alleys and tavernas of Constantinople and Alexandria to find men. The poems that Smaragthis chose to have in the film almost exclusively focus on homosexual themes. While Cavafy's homosexuality needs to be dealt with in a film, it seems every scene involves Cavafy staring into the eyes of some new man. In fact, Cavafy's rejection by the Athenian literary establishment is portrayed as Cavafy being rejected sexually by one of the leading Athenian poets of the time, Mavroudis. Not only do these scenes limit our understanding of Cavafy's life, but they really make for a static, and honestly boring movie.

A great poet like Cavafy deserves better. Let's hope the next person to take on the life of Cavafy decides to portray him as the complicated genius he really was.

As much as I enjoyed Johnny Depp's performance as Capt. Jack Sparrow, the action, and the visual effects, the plot and story behind the second installment of "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" makes the movie confusing and detracts from what we're watching unfold on screen. While the light tone and gentle gabs at the genre remain from the first movie, as well as the slightly intoxicated character of Jack Sparrow who is as hilarious as ever, character development is lacking. Elizabeth Swann is simply an annoying heroine who loses the edgy graciousness she had in the first movie, while Orlando Bloom just doesn't convey the youthful excitement from the previous film. Plus, the scene where Will is reunited with his father is just silly. Add in a two dimensional evil villain who just cares about money and you have at least three blah performances who revolve around Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow. The movie is entertaining, but far too much is going on for us to enjoy Johnny Depp and the special effects.

"Trapped in the Closet," the brainchild of rapper R. Kelley, should not be taken seriously at all. You can look at R. Kelley's terrible rhyming, ridiculous plot, monotonous music that goes on for 35 minutes with no variation, homophobia, misogyny, and immorality and bemoan that this is our generation's "Odyssey." Or, you can laugh. And that is what I did. Whether he meant it or not, "Trapped in the Closet" feels like the greatest Saturday Night Live skit ever put together (in fact, SNL did parody this and it was not at all as funny as the real thing). Essentially, it's a parody of R. Kelley's world without trying to be. You will not regret watching this.