Yesterday I finished watching Downfall, the story of Hitler's last days in the bunker as told through the eyes of his young secretary. German language with subtitles.

Excellent. Strong recommendation to rent.

I suppose the one danger, and it is ideological, is that it does tend to "humanize" Hitler. He was human, after all, and the uninformed (and there are many uninformed people out there, don't kid yourself) could wind up feeling a bit too much sympathy for these characters without the background knowledge of just how evil they really were.

Nevertheless, that aside, this is an excellent film.

I have just now finished watching Oliver Stone's Alexander. Holy crap. Two hours and fifty-five minutes of my life...MY LIFE...down the shitter. If only the writers had been in the bunker chomping cyanide capsules. How in the hell do you screw this story up? They found a way.

There was a little, itty-bit of cool battle scene which only went to show what the film could have been, but there is so much wrong here I don't know where to begin. (Oh, there were also a couple of naked breasts which is almost always a good thing, but come to think of it, there were more naked breasts in Downfall -- seriously.) Utter boredom made of one of history's greatest characters. Unbelievable.

Words that went through my mind as I watched: "SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!"

Recommendation: Avoid.