Perhaps the novelty will wear off eventually, but we've watched two more movies on our new TV and VCR this week.

The Muse: Skip it. Sharon Stone and Andie MacDowell are as delightful as always. Jeff Bridges is weird, but I like him. Albert Brooks whined a lot, but he made it work relatively well. But the script... There are lots of topical (read: "soon to be obsolete") references to the film industry, and there are some fun cameos that you need to be really in-the-know to get (I wouldn't have recognized Martin Scorsese if it weren't for Animaniacs). And then there's the ending—or lack thereof. The film is strolling along, then some twists and conflict are introduced, and then the credits are rolling. --wha? It ends so abruptly I can only guess that it suffered from thought-of-the-ending-first syndrome: The writer gets an idea for a twist ending, tries to craft a plot that leads up to it, realizes he's meandering far too slowly, and quickly dashes through the last steps to the brilliant and surprising finish. There's a brief shot of Sharon Stone's well-crafted behind, and that's about all there is to recommend this film.

Run Lola Run: Oh, yes. Yes. It's about entropy, it's about choices, it's about quantum physics—all wrapped up in a visually captivating and admirably aerobic sprint. It's German, with subtitles, which I didn't realize until the opening credits rolled by, auf Deutsch. The style is clearly not-American, which I appreciated. Australian films (such as Muriel's Wedding and Strictly Ballroom) have their own signature feel, as do the French films I've seen, Delicatessen and City of Lost Children (granted, same director); Run Lola Run was my first glimpse at a German movie. And I liked it—kept my heart rate up the whole time.