(Like many Netflix customers, I too can get quite lax with the timely watching and returning of my movies, which of course defeats the entire purpose of having a flat-rate rental plan in the first place. To combat that, I am now writing standardized mini-reviews of each and every movie I end up watching through Netflix, both instantly and on DVD. Don't forget, all previous 'Justify My Netflix' reviews can be found on CCLaP's main movie page.)

Today's movie: The Brothers Bloom, 2009 (Amazon | IMDB | Netflix | Wikipedia)

Why I added it to my queue: Because it's the much anticipated follow-up to director Rian Johnson's phenomenal high-school-noir debut Brick, this time using a much better-known cast (including Mark Ruffalo, Rachel Weisz, and Adrien Brody "at his sexiest," according to several Facebook friends) to tell a comedic yet convoluted caper tale about two con-men brothers and their final foil.

The reality: Meh. I don't know, maybe it's that I found Johnson's last movie to be so remarkably good, but I just found myself a little disappointed by The Brothers Bloom -- funny and smart to be sure, but with elaborate mechanics behind its plot points that seem really forced in a lot of places, and with a whole cutesy-weirdo Wes Anderson vibe only not done nearly as well (not to mention that I'm rapidly tiring of cutesy-weirdo Wes Anderson type movies to begin with, even when they're from Anderson himself). That said, those who haven't seen Brick are sure to like this a lot, not to mention those into smartly-done caper movies, those who enjoy complicated storylines, and those are simply aren't sick of Wes-Anderson-style cutesy weirdness yet. It's not exactly bad, not exactly great, which is why today it gets only a weak recommendation.

Strangest piece of trivia: Tom Cruise almost produced this movie and played the lead role, and in fact had a three-hour script session with Johnson that highly influenced its final version.

Worth your time? Eh