Belated Friday five.

Five things I do and do not recommend, in no particular order:

• Thumbs mostly up for Franz Ferdinand at the Crystal Ballroom last Monday. If you like their music, I recommend seeing them once but maybe only once. I hesitated buying a ticket for this show because I saw them on Austin City Limits a few years ago and wasn't impressed... but that's not really their type of venue. Bouncy floors at the Crystal is totally their type of venue. They still seemed uncomfortable with the whole rock star stage presence but they did all my favorite songs and I'm intrigued by the new stuff.
• Thumbs also mostly up for Charlie Wilson's War. Tom and Julia were tolerable, Philip was amazing as usual (and an inspiration during the "eff uuuuuu boss" scenes early on!). It was a good history lesson with a point that could've been more relevant to today's debacle... But I won't hold that against them. I think you should watch it.
  
• Thumbs down for The Hunting Party - got through about 15 minutes, decided it wasn't my thing. But can I just say, damn, is Richard Gere still hot after all these years. And Terrence Howard is also fine.
  
• Thumbs hovering on this one - The Air I Breathe. Generally speaking, I enjoy anything that Kevin Bacon, Forest Whitaker or Sarah Michelle Gellar (Prinze) has a hand in. I generally even enjoy Brendan Fraser. So I had high expectations of this film. I liked what they tried to do, but I don't feel that they were successful. Which is not to say I feel like I wasted my hour and a half... OK, you be the judge on this one.
  
• Thumbs down for Down By Law. I just hope to one day make it through a Jim Jarmusch film without falling asleep... let alone understand it.