Immortals (2011) rating: 6/10

Shirtless Henry Cavill and Kellan Lutz -- nice abs -- cavort through this Greek (but really, I think, more Roman-like) gods and men and titans supernatural action flick.  Visuals are great.  Directed by an Indian fellow, I believe.  Is he possibly gay?  I ask because of the amount of male nipple shown versus any female flesh.  In any case, male casting was excellent.  The story barely holds together though.

Watching the DVD extras is actually helpful to understand what happens.

The Debt (2010) rating: 7/10

Each character has two actors playing their roles.  One for 30 years ago.  The other for today.  They decided not to use makeup (making young actors look preternaturally old).  Probably a good choice because I ended up only liking two of the character+actor combinations from different times.  Mirren is great as the old Mossad lady.  How is it that she looks so, um, stereotypically, Jewish here?  And Sam Worthington is sometimes stunning as one of the young Mossad agents.  His older counterpart, played by Ciarán Hinds (Julius Caesar from Rome mini-series), is like Worthington fallen down some horrific cliff, which I suppose is always within the realm of possibility in 30 years, but would be one of those "God! What happened to him?" cases.

San Diego Museums, overall rating: 4/10

Museum of Photographic Arts: wildly overrated in tour books, small, uninteresting

Timken Museum of Art: can't complain too much about free, but small, has a few very slightly above average paintings, weird old building

San Diego Museum of Art: better than above (not saying much); medium sized with some good paintings

Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego and La Jolla: rotating exhibitions; downtown was better with very interesting Isaac Julien and Ai Wei Wei pieces (downtown rating: 6/10)

The Princess of Montpensier (2010), rating: 7/10

French movie about a love triangle (quadrangle arguably) takes place during the period of 17th century France when Catholics and Protestants warred.  A wealthy heiress's marriage is arranged counter to her desires for her childhood sweetheart.  Her jealous (but IMO better looking) husband reacts with the typical mate guarding behaviors.  Nevertheless, the old flame stays alive.

Making Sense of People by Samuel Barondes, rating: 9/10

The subtitle is Decoding the Mysteries of Personality.  It is actually a fairly technical modern psychology book, but puts it all in layman's terms.  It talks about some ten of the troublesome personality patterns, including types like: histrionic, dependent or compulsive.  These were terms I'd heard about before, but never until now got a full understanding of.  The book isn't very long, a significant plus.

And now for a surprise...

Victim (1961) rating: 9/10

While homosexuality was a crime in England, gay men cowered when blackmailed with pictures taken with a telephoto lens.  But one stands up to take the blackmailers on.

Surprisingly well done argument for repealing of the law against homosexuality wrapped in a kind of action film.  Pretty astounding for a film of 1961.

Brideshead Revisited (1981) rating: 8/10

The first half of this mini-series is amazingly about a pair of platonic gay best friends. That part is fun, but also very disappointing in a way that a 1980s mini-series about platonic gay people probably had to be.

The second half is much much less interesting. Plus, the protagonist, Charles Ryder, switches teams. What a mother f**ker! The protagonist is actually not a good person in my opinion. Among other faults, he's a poor example of a non-believer and he really doesn't back his friend properly. A traitor really.

[One might reason that Charles was just romanced by the wealth of the family, not by any of them.  If Charles is heterosexual, when it was clear Sebastian liked boys (one day in), the right honorable thing should have been to stay away and not lead him on.  If Charles is bisexual, then I'm not sure what I would say.  Maybe, make up your mind, dude!]

Throughout there is a surprising focus on religion, (Catholicism) especially in the second half, which I personally found quite boring and uninteresting. That a dying old man who never went to church in 

Take Me Home Tonight (2011) rating: 6/10

Topher Grace is the lead in this film flashback to the '80s. I really like Topher, but I'll try not let it color my review here. The movie is not very funny, though there are a few good moments in the script. The presentation of the hackneyed lesson of not wasting your life as a spectator is a little obvious. Seeing Topher shirtless makes up for the movie's shortcomings somewhat.

One confusing thing is Topher wears his watch on his right arm, but eats with his right. As an almost pure lefty, I find that weird. But maybe it makes sense, like just putting on a watch is easier for his left hand.