Superman II (1980) ****

1981's follow-up to the successful Superman sees Supes identity being revealed to Lois and his decision to become mortal and be with her for all time thwarted by the Phantom Zone criminals from the first film.

The first thing you'll notice is that Richard Lester directed this film. Well, over 50% of it because of the Salkind's anger with Richard Donner actually making a good film instead of a cash cow (could you imagine if these morons had gotten their hands on Batman like they wanted). Most of this film was complete when Lester took over, but in order to get Donner's name off the credits he had to shoot at least 51% of the film. Ironically Richard Donner's cameo (in front of the diner) remained in Lester's cut of the film.

Overall this is still a very solid action film given its rocky history. All the principals are here and the story is still solid. The film falls flat on it's face during the ending when Superman uses saran wrap, Krypton's master use of force lightning, and teleportation becomes a standard addition to being under a yellow sun. Other than that Superman II is a great action film that (official) continued the Superman franchise (what till we get to III and IV).

Diamonds Are Forever (1971) ****

Sean Connery returns for his last OFFICIAL James Bond film that begins as a mediocre smuggling case but slowly becomes yet another plot for world domination. After returning from a holiday that was relaxing, but "satisfying" Bond is sent on a mission to determine the rungs of a diamond smuggling ring. The mission takes 007 to Holland, Las Vegas, and the middle of the Pacific as the conspiracy grows beyond anyone's wildest imaginations.

Connery's last foray as a real Bond is as over the top as the get with him throwing out one liners left and right. Connery is Bond, so it doesn't matter that he's only here for the high pay check. Charles Gray plays Blofeld, which is odd because he was killed as Henderson in You Only Live Twice. He lends something to the Blofeld role not seen before (and we're not talking about hair). Jill St. John is the lead Bond girl Tiffany Case, who is the first attempt at the now thirty five year old idea of making a "different Bond girl (I will discuss that at a later date). She has an attitude, but is still in "Oh James" mode whenever Connery is on screen. And I cannot forget mentioning two of the greatest henchmen ever created: Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd. Yes, apparently they are gay.

Diamonds are Forever is a downscaled film that even though it has a world domination theme by the end plays like a standard mission that isn't mired in excessive lairs and such. A great Bond and a fitting send off for Connery from the series (unless he comes back as "M". A boy can hope).

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) ****

Steven Spielberg loves to tell modern day fairy tales and Close Encounters is yet another from the factory. Richard Dreyfuss plays an Indiana lineman who has an encounter with a UFO during a power outage. What follows is either a fall into madness or a quest to find out the truth about his visitors.

I was amazed to find out that the original script came from Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull) who had his name removed from the writing credits after Spielberg made a number of changes (I found it odd that Spielberg took a writing credit, but I could also see Schrader putting a masturbation scene in here somewhere). The script is the usual Hollywood processing at times: no one believes the hero except for the one main guy, etc. I'm not calling the script terrible, but it's not over the top.

What makes Close Encounters are two things. The first is Spielberg's direction, mainly when he uses large spaces as Fordian panoramas. The second are the special effects which are still amazing thirty years later. If another director had made this it would have been forgotten '70's garbage.

While Close Encounters isn't Spielberg's greatest film, it certainly is a fine piece of film making. Another modern day fairy tale.

His Name Was Jason: 30 Years Of Friday the 13th (2009) ****

His Name Was Jason is a look back at the biggest horror franchise in film history Friday the 13th. Extensive interviews with cast, crew, and fans travel down the many roads of Camp Crystal Lake. The host is FX god Tom Savini.

I don't know if the documentary itself is worthy of four stars. It's informative, yet edited kind of hap hazardly with Savini's vignets seeming kind of hokey. It's the bonus features that really make this an interesting piece, especially the interviews with all of the directors (except Steve Miner and Ronnie Yu) and the actors that "played" Jason (we must remember that it's a stuntman in a mask).

This is a must have for hardcore fans. Everyone else will probably want to steer clear.

Beetlejuice (1988) ****

Beetlejuice is Tim Burton's follow-up to the amazingly good Pee Wee's Big Adventure in which a couple played by Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis play the perfect Norman Rockwell couple who are recently deceased and sentenced to 125 years in their countryside home. They run into trouble when yuppies buy the house and begin to turn it into a post modern nightmare, leading them to hire the self proclaimed "bio-exorcist" Beetlejuice, played by Michael Keaton. The problem is that Beetlejuice is a bigger problem than the yuppies.

Like most of Burton's films Beetlejuice is a dark film, though most of it is comedic. The afterlife is nothing you've ever seen, being that it is reminiscent of Tuesday morning at the DMV. Keaton, playing the title character, gets very little screentime with most of the interaction going between the couple and the yuppies daughter Lydia, played by Winona Ryder in full goth mode.

The film is a quirky little death tale that is highly original and thusly has never been sequelized. Sssshhh. Hero's twenty years gone seem to be the current thing lately.

A History of Violence (2005) ****

"No good deed goes unpunished."

Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) has a simple country life, running a diner in a small Indiana town and living in a house surrounded by fields. But it all changes for him when two maniacs step into his diner and he is forced to defend his customers and himself. In the media frenzy that follows he gets a visit from a trio of Philadelphia mobsters led by a magnificent Ed Harris. These man insist that Tom is a mafia killer who had been in hiding for the last couple decades.

A History of Violence is filled with suspense and mystery and seems like a hybrid between a Hitchcock film and a Frank Capra film. It's kind of like It's a Wonderful Life in Hell. Stall is never really threatened outright, yet he is. David Cronenberg delivers a tightly packaged thriller that could have been packed with another hour to give it a David Lean feel, but he doesn't and makes a film that is smoother than what other directors would have done.

You may go in expecting Death Wish, but this isn't your typical, cliched film. It's a surprising piece that works well with its material and its cast.

WALL-E (2008) ****1/2

Wall-E is about the last of the trash compactor robots that were left on Earth 800 years ago to clean up the mess that man created for himself. Where are we at? We're in a giant Wal Mart turning into Elvis: The Dying Days as we wait for the day that we can return home. When a probe drops EVE, a robot used for searching for plant life on the surface of the Earth, Wall-E falls in love with her and travels across the galaxy out of this new found feeling inside of his gear box.

Once again Pixar has made an animated film that isn't a cut above the rest, it's on the top of Everest while everyone else is sitting in an outhouse in Nebraska. I just can not understand why every year we get so many animated films and they look like someone painted on the stalls of a gas station bathroom in their own feces compared to Pixar's work.

Even though the story is a little too preachy the entire idea of a littered Earth is a MacGuffin. This is actually a love story between Wall-E and Eve. Don't ask me how they did it but Pixar will make you believe that robots can fall in love. And it works.

It's getting to the point that I'm beginning to wonder if Pixar can do no wrong.

American Gangster (2007) ****1/2

Russell Crowe returns as Ridley Scott's De Niro in American Gangster, the story of Harlem drug lord Frank Lucas. Set during the early 1970's the story deals with the "Wholesale" distribution and pricing that Lucas introduced by having his drugs shipped directly to him from South east Asia during the Vietnam War. Crowe plays the drug task force head that makes the discovery that it's a black man from harlem and not the Mafia that's running the major drug business in New York and New Jersey.

Denzel Washington gives us another great performance as Frank Lucas. I've never seen Washington play a character that is cold and violent in one scene and a happy family man in the next without missing a beat or mixing the two together. Crowe once again proves that he's on top of his game as Richie Roberts, played almost as a pathetic character throughout the film.

Another classic from Ridley Scott, who continues to seal his reputation as one of the top directors of the last thirty years.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) ****1/2

If the saga of Indiana Jones was built as a very good book, then Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is the epilogue. Is it necessary? No, but it's like the gravy. It's a little extra dose of what makes the movies wonderful.

Prof. Henry Jones, Jr. has been hurled into the 1950's with the Russians replacing the Nazi's, Howdy Doody on the TV and Elvis on the radio. By the same token, the inspiration for the film has changed with the times as well. The serials that inspired the original three films have been replaced with the bastion of 1950's pop culture- science fiction (I find it mildly amusing that Ed Wood may have influenced as multi million dollar project 50 years after his hey day).

Harrison Ford owns the role of Indiana Jones. There is no denying that fact. Seeing him on the screen again after close to twenty years is like seeing a long lost uncle for the first time since you were in grade school. He may be grayer and slower but the personality is still there. Even at social security age Ford still pulls off being Indiana Jones.

On the red side is Cate Blanchett as the Russian "paranormal scientist" that provides Indiana with an adversary. Blanchett plays the role like Natasha from Rocky and Bullwinkle and why shouldn't she? The series hasn't shied away from stereotypes before. Ray Winstone, John Hurt, and Karen Allen round out Indy's posse. Allen's return is a welcome change of pace for the recent reemergence of the 1980's action heroes who either kill of their love interests (Mr. Balboa?) or casually mention them (Die Hard anyone?). It's nice to see a male star have a female love interest that's actual in the same generation.

The person I know everyone is dying to hear about is Shia LeBeouf. This has been the one aspect of the movie that has worried me for months. Shia's performance was OK. Ok you ask? What I mean by that is the character of Mutt Williams seems to just be filler, a person that Indiana Jones explains things to so that the audience knows what the hell is going on. So when I say that Shia is OK, he doesn't really seem to have much to work with and when he does feature in a scene it is usually very campy (For myself, I would have found the rumor of the part being a female played by Natalie Portman could have made the film a little more interesting from that standpoint). One of the few problems with the film is that Indy has enough sidekicks in this one to start a basketball team.
Once again Spielberg is Spielberg. Great direction, though there are a couple of times that it seems that he's trying a little too hard to be unique. People are complaining about the CGI. I would like to ask those people to wake up, trash their VHS tapes and realize that it's 2007. If Lucas had airbrushed one wrinkle off of Harrison Ford's face some baby would scream that Lucas had gone CGI crazy. For a movie like this I think it's very CGI light.

In general, this is Indiana Jones. It's a summer blockbuster popcorn movie that everyone wants to see (I waited in a line with people that ranged from pre-schoolers to seniors). Crystal Skull is just as entertaining as all the others and it does play homage the previous movies (and a little gift for the Star Wars geeks) Indiana Jones is like riding that same old roller coaster you ride every summer at the amusement park. Parts of it may be the same, but it's still one hell of a ride.

Iron Man (2008) ****1/2

Now that Iron Man has christened the 2008 summer movie season all people are talking about is how it won't even make half of what Spider-man 3 made last year. Who cares? Iron Man slaughters any of the Spider-man films in many areas. Better acting, better direction, better writing, etc. Instead of the cheese and fluff that has grown like mold on the Spider-man saga Iron Man represents what comic films should be: a serious and mature version of their source books.

Robert Downey, Jr. shines as Tony Stark, a role that seems written for him. Gweneth Paltrow lends credibility to the film in a role that is usually reserved for names you just can't quite place in other films. What would have been a filler role becomes an important piece to Iron Man. Probably the most overlooked piece of the Iron Man puzzle is Jeff Bridges. I went into this movie knowing that Bridges was the bad guy, but damn it, you still like the guy through 90 minutes of the film.

Overall you become immersed in Tony Stark's world and it works for the viewer. This is the best comic adaptation since Batman Begins and hopefully is a good omen for summer movies 2008.

Superman II (The Richard Donner Cut) (2006) ****1/2

A much better film than the original release, The Donner Cut is all we have of the original vision of Richard Donner's Superman II. The main difference between the two are the respect to the mythology of Superman: the theatrical film threw in garbage such as teleportation whereas Donner kept the film within Superman's powers and weaknesses. It is the superior version, although I still have to give the original props for being able to put together a solid film after the mess that the Salkinds created.

So why didn't I give it five stars? Because it's still not done and will never be done. If it had been completed to the original specifications it would have easily been better than the original film. The Donner Cut is an artifact of what might have been and how producers sometimes don't know what's best for their project (yes, they produced Superman III and Supergirl).

Casino Royale (2006) ****1/2

Daniel Craig takes the mantel of 007 and runs like a wild beast with it in a reboot to the 45 year old James Bond franchise. What you get is a rougher, grittier, inexperienced Bond whose ego gets in the way of the mission at times.

Casino Royale opens with Bond achieving double "o" status and going on a mission to extract information from a bomb maker. As the story unfolds he ends up playing a high stakes card game set up by terrorist accountant Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) to pay of the losses he has collected while gambling with his clients money. Eva Green plays Bond's treasury liaison Versper Lynd who is there to monitor Bond's government staked card playing.

This isn't your daddies James Bond. There are no gadgets really, no Q. No Moneypenny. This is a young Bond who isn't quite sure of himself yet will be damned if he'll let you know about it. This Bond bleeds. It rains in this Bond's world. Daniel Craig has redefined a mythic character for the new millennium. Some purists would say that this isn't James Bond and it isn't Connery or Moore. It's a style all its own, forged in the 2000's.

Casino Royale is not only a great James Bond film, but a great movie in general. It's characters and storyline as top notch and play out wonderfully up on the screen. I was cynical about a blonde Bond, but I see that I was wrong. Hopefully Craig can continue the greatness that Casino Royale started.

Duck, You Sucker (A.K.A. A Fistful of Dynamite) ****1/2

Duck, You Sucker is Sergio Leone's follow-up to the epic Once Upon a Time in the West (and is considered the second act of a trilogy that ends with Once Upon A Time In America). Rod Steiger plays the patriarch of a Mexican peasant-bandit family during the Mexican Revolution. He stumbles on an explosives expert played by James Coburn, who is a former IRA revolutionary. Steiger quickly becomes a reluctant hero of the revolution while Coburn has deja vu over the revolution he finds himself in the middle of now and the revolution he left in Ireland.

This Leone film is full of commentary that hasn't been seen from the director before, particular Steiger's lines about the bookworms polishing tables while the peasants die in a revolution. Leone's direction is pure Leone with its intensity and use of spaces. Overall the cast is great. though Coburn's Irish brogue fades in and out throughout the film. The only low point of the film, which I was surprised about, was Ennio Morricone's score. It's interesting at the beginning, but about halfway through the picture becomes a rehash of the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid score. Morricone seems to have phones in this one.

Duck, You Sucker is Leone's forgotten film, suffering from the butchering the same way as both Once Upon A Time... films did before and after it. The restored version of Leone's vision shows that he was on top of his game and makes one wonder what more he could have given us with the proper backing.

Night of the Living Dead (1968) ****1/2

Night of the Living Dead is George Romero's low budget horror classic that ushered in a new era of horror and defined what exactly a zombie is without even mentioning it by name. A group of people end up in a deserted Pennsylvania farm house after being harassed by the dead rising from the grave and eating their living counterparts.

Night of the Living Dead isn't a total late '60's horror film- it's also a look at the interactions of people. The main living characters all represent different personalities of normal life and how they would react in this situation, which of course leads to conflict. I can see this film being shown in sociology classes someday.

Romero defines the creepy feel of the film, shooting at angles and making it into something that had never been seen before: unadulterated horror. This film was no holds barred for 1968 and it thrived in the drive in theater circuit to become the legendary film that it is today.

So what's so special about Night of the Living Dead? Mainly, it's the fact that this is the first monster movie where the monster wasn't from outer space or a mad scientists lab. The monster is essentially us. Horror had come home and this film would be the catalyst for all the thrillers that were set in our own backyards that followed it.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) ****1/2

Another masterpiece from John Ford starring Jimmy Stewart playing his usual common man transplanted into the rough and tumble world of the west. John Wayne plays his polar opposite, a gunslinging cowboy who knows how to use a gun. There are two people between them. One is the damsel in the tiny western town played by Vera Miles. The other is Liberty Valance, a sadistic gun for hire played by the great Lee Marvin.

This film is more about the taming of the west. When Stewart's character arrives it's a madhouse like all wild west towns are, but by the end of the film everything has become more civilized, even though the Easterner had to use means that he is against at the start of the picture.

Stewart and Wayne play their trademark roles in this film. This film is almost like looking at both icons in the stereotypes they have become in the mind of the general public. Vera Miles returns from Hitchcock land (ironically she was supposed to have starred with Stewart in Hitchcock's Vertigo) and gives a nice performance as the love interest of both men. It's Lee Marvin that brings pure evil to the screen as Liberty Valance. His performance ranks up there with some of the other classic western villains as he destroys everything in his path. He probably has the greatest gang backing him up as well, with Strother Martin playing a looney stooge while Lee Van Cleef shows us a glimpse of the quiet and dangerous force he would unleash when he went to Italy.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is a classic western that ranks as one of John Ford's best. The use of black and white is almost a way for Ford to bring the film back to simpler times. Unlike other Ford epics, the backgrounds do not overshadow the actors in the foregrounds. A great western.

White Heat (1949) *****

White Heat is probably one of the greatest gangster films ever made. The fact that it was released in an era that monitored film violence to the hilt is even more shocking. The film is about Arthur "Cody" Jarrett (James Cagney), a gangland leader that's on the edge and just about ready to fall off. His gang has made moves against him. His wife Verna (Virginia Mayo) is not as enthusiastic about him as she once was. The only thing Cody has going for him in his life is his Ma (Margaret Wycherly). Ma isn't just a mother, but an advisor and nurse to the mobster. When a recent train heist turns bad Cody turns himself in for another job on the other side of the continent. The feds don't buy it and plant Vic Pardo (Edmund O'Brien) to not only get the truth out of Cody, but to catch the man who sets up the jobs and fences the goods.

It's not as easy as it seems. As the film progresses and events continue to turn against Cody he slowly slides over that edge into insanity. Cagney gives us one of the greatest performance of madness ever seen. Even today after countless thousands of psychotics gracing our screens, the Cagney performance still shocks and holds the power that it had sixty years ago. There are scenes where he seems to enjoy killing off the competition, which was unheard of in this era. Cagney created the psychotic gangster model that would be repeated over and over again for the next three score.

Raoul Walsh directs White Heat without the glitz and glamour that permeated in 1940's Hollywood. Virginia Mayo's character snores and spits while Cagney's Cody stomps along as a cold hearted bastard. It's not a shiny gangster film. It goes for the guts and when it has them it doesn't let go. The rest of the cast is your basic '40's stock company, but it doesn't matter because it's Cagney's picture. He is just so amazing to watch on screen as he slowly slips downward.

White Heat is a gangster masterpiece that has had such an impact on film it has reverberated even into today's cinemas. Coppola, Scorsese, and Tarantino owe a debt to this film for laying a blueprint for the modern gangster movie. A true classic masterpiece.

An Officer And A Gentleman (1982) ****

OK, I know I tend to be anti-chick flick. Most of them are repetitive pieces of garbage that bank on a hot male star to hold up a pathetic script. For years I've though that An Officer and a Gentleman was the king of chick flicks. All we've seen is that last scene with Richard Gere carrying Debra Winger out of her factory job in his military dress. It feels like pure chick flick. But it turns out to be much more than that.

The film follows Zack Mayo (Richard Gere), a recent college grad who shocks his boozing and whoring father by declaring that he had joined the Navy to learn to fly jets. Mayo ends up being under the thumb of Gunnery Sergeant Foley (Louis Gossett, Jr.) while entering into a romance with local factory worker Paula Pokrifki (Debra Winger).

The film folows the ups and downs of this group of officer wannabes. You see their pain. Gere's character may seem confident, but he realizes he's landed in his last chance. You see the hell and the happiness when he's with Paula. It's sort of a ying yang portrayal between the cold as ice trainee and the lover. Gere pulls it off, as does Winger. Winger's character is almost like a lost soul who knows that the operating procedure in her town is to trap and officer and see the world, yet she knows that she actually wants to love whoever her mate is supposed to be.

The key performance is Louis Gossett, Jr. His portrayal of Sgt. Foley is a masterpiece and sets the standard for all other Sergeants (sans real drill instructor R. Lee Ermey) that followed him. He's a prick, but there are a few cracks in that armor. Just a few and they don't show very often as they're almost felt like a ghostly presence. A great performance that deserved the Oscar he won.

After seeing An Officer and a Gentleman I almost have to call it Full Metal Jacket Light. Instead of being a romance, which seems to be a secondary plot point, it's more of an examination of the human spirit being twisted and distorted by forces all around the characters. Like I said it may be a chick flick, but it's a good chick flick.

Pee Wee's Big Adventure (1985) ****

When you think about a movie starring Pee Wee Herman nothing really springs to mind except crap. Another movie that milks a 15 minute wonder for some quick cash. Amazingly Pee Wee Herman's first film Pee Wee's Big Adventure is an entertaining trip through the real world in an over grown kids eyes.

Pee Wee (Paul Reubens) is like Peter Pan. The guy never grew up from a fireman's pole in his bedroom to the mouse trap like device that cooks him breakfast Pee Wee lives in a kids fantasy world. His most beloved possession is his bicycle, an ornate affair with all the bells and whistles and P.A. system. It's kept under lock and key and security system. The bike is his life.

So on a trip to the magic shop his bike ends up getting stolen. This is the catalyst for Pee Wee the over grown kid to travel the real world searching for his bike. He rides with an escapee, runs into a biker gang, hitches a ride with a ghost all in the name of saving his beloved bike.

What sets this film apart from what it might have been is direction by Tim Burton. Burton directs the film like a cartoon, echoing his previous work and giving us a glance of what he was capable of during the next ten years. Burton's creative eye gives the film a much needed push from being Viva Kineval.
Pee Wee Herman may be dead, but his film is still a great piece of entertainment. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a classic but it has definitely out grown it's star. A fun film.

Carlito's Way (1983) ****1/2

Brian DePalma and Al Pacino team up again ten years after the controversial Scarface to give us the story of reformed Puerto Rican criminal Carlito Brigante in Carlito's Way. Carlito has just been sprung out of his thirty year sentence in only five years by his lawyer (played by Sean Penn) and has vowed to stay legit until he can come up with the money to move to the Bahamas and buy into a car rental business. Things are going good for Carlito. He's running a night club that's making him money and he's back with his girl (played by Penelope Ann Miller). But this all begins to unravel due to the "code of the streets".

Pacino is excellent as Carlito, who he doesn't play in the over the top way he's played a good portion of his roles since Scent of a Woman. Miller is also great as Gale, the woman who he left behind when he went to prison five years before. But the true stand out of the film was Sean Penn, who got so into his role as dirty attorney David Kleinfeld. Penn is amazing in this film and steals a few scenes from the legend Pacino. Carlito's Way is Sean Penn's breakout performance.
Brian DePalma's fingerprints are all over this film. The subway scenes and the Vertigoesque camerawork when Gale finally pulls Carlito into her arms are classic DePalma who directs the film with great precision.

Dare I say it? Carlito's Way is miles ahead of Scarface, a film that I consider to be one of the most overrated films of the last thirty years (no, it didn't make the top ten). It isn't as excessive as Scarface that spent almost three hours beating you over the head with bags of cocaine and the "f" word. Carlito is a more relaxed film that is steeped in film noir, mainly in the narration. The opening is a strong reminder of Sunset Blvd. from almost forty years before. Carlito's Way is one of the strongest pieces from DePalma and represents a renaissance that Pacino had in the early 1990's. If only Al could get that back now.

Blue Velvet (1986) ****1/2

David Lynch's Blue Velvet tells the tale of a college student (Kyle McLachlan) who upon coming home to take care of his ill father stumbles upon a human ear in a vacant lot behind his home. It's this ear that takes him on a ride that features a run down lounge singer, an all american high school sweetheart, and an icon of anger, violence and deviance.

And it is a wild ride in deed. Lynch has crafted a film that has a feel that's ala Hitchcock and all the great thriller directors. You sit there watching, dread in the pit of your stomach as you think that what these characters plan to do is not the right course of action. The "Don't go in there!" syndrome of cinema. Lynch throws us some great visuals while keeping the film as dark as its subject matter.

The main reason to take a look at this great flick is for Dennis Hooper's Frank Booth. Hooper plays this character in the over the top manner that only Dennis Hopper can dish out. His comeback performance for sure.

I watched Blue Velvet at 1AM after being awake for twenty hours. I was tired. I wanted to go to sleep, but I couldn't look away from the film. I knew that I couldn't sleep because I had to know where this was going to end.

A wild ride indeed.

Mean Streets (1973) ****1/2

Martin Scorsese's first film in a genre that he would define in the following decades is also his first pairing with Robert DeNiro in Mean Streets. The film is about a group of low men on the Mafia totem pole mainly focusing on Harvey Keitel's character Chralie who ends up being pulled from three directions: his uncles business, his girl Teresa (Amy Robinson), and the lunacy of Johnny Boy (DeNiro).

Mean Streets feels almost like the test hybrid for films like Taxi Driver and Goodfellas that would come as early as three years later to close to twenty. As in a lot of Scorsese pictures New York plays a role in itself. You know it's New York in the 1970's, a gritty cess pool that most Americans knew nothing about. This was a film about Scorsese's neighborhood. DeNiro is fantastic as Johnny Boy, a role he plays when he was still the hungry method actor. Where has those days gone Bob?

Mean Streets is Scorsese's first real love letter to New York and helps define his style that has been ripped off several time but never duplicated. You can feel the traffic going by, hear the band playing, and smell the mixture of marinara sauce and sewer like you were actually in Little Italy.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) ****1/2

It's not that the Texas Chainsaw Massacre is gory. It's not too terribly scary. It's just disturbing as hell.

A group goes out to an old farm house and to check on the grave of a grandfather accidentally stumbles onto a crazed family in the middle of the Texas nowhere: a crazed hitch hiker, a crazed gas station owner, and a psychotic housekeeper named Leatherface.

The funny thing about TCM is that the villains don't actually go after the victims. They seem to keep stumbling into their lair and they do what they know how to do: slaughter. Tobe Hooper directs the film in a documentary style that makes the film all the more gritty as the day ends and night begins. The set designs are so incredibly crazed and filled with dead animals and bones that you actually believe it: it's too crazy for someone to make up.

As I said earlier, TCM is just so damn disturbing, mainly because you know that there are people out there somewhere. They could be living in that old house on the way to grandpas or down the lane that you stumbled on while looking for your bosses house. Hooper makes the horror real, pushing the envelope that Romero sealed with Night of the Living Dead: the horror was coming closer and closer to home.

Being John Malkovich (1999) ****1/2

Being John Malkovich is a dark comedy with a premise that is so out of this solar system that it's too unbelievable to comprehend on paper. John Cusack plays a puppeteer who finally gets a 9 to 5 office job to make ends meet. In the process he falls in love with Maxine (Catherine Keener) who wants nothing to do with him. As his days of filing continue boredom overlapped with boredom he discovers a hidden door that leads to John Malkovich's head. As the story progresses a love triangle develops between Cusack and Keener's characters and the puppeteers wife played by Cameron Diaz. The funny thing is that Malkovich is the vessel that this triangle takes its physical form.

What Spike Jonze has created with Malkovich is a world that is so unbelievable populated with unbelievable characters that you suddenly realize ARE believable. Everyone knows a guy like Cusacks character, obsessed with his chosen artistic profession even if it isn't the hip thing to do. You know a scheming bitch like Keener's character. You know a pathetic person that's just "there" in life like Diaz. John Malkovich is the most normal of the lot.

The film is different. There's no doubt about that, but it's this shot out of left field that makes it a more interesting film. The cast gives us performances that are a complete break from their usual film fare and it works because you're seeing these people again for the first time. A great film that will twist your mind into a pretzel and you won't care.

Body Heat (1981) ****1/2

At a bandstand during a heat wave in a small Florida town Ned Racine (William Hurt) meets the sultry Matty Walker (Kathleen Turner) and changes their lives forever. Racine is a scuzzy lawyer who screws everything that allows him to, while Matty is the trophy wife for an older man (Richard Crenna) who may not be on the level. As Ned and Matty continue into their passionate affair they decide that there is only one solution: they have to kill her husband.

Body Heat is a classic film noir tale that takes place in the heat of the moment in a town that is dark, dirty, and lacking air conditioning. Lawrence Kasdan takes the reigns of his first film and runs with it in what starts out as almost a softcore porn tale and transforms into a dark story about a love triangle populated by three bad people, but they're bad for different reasons.

The cast is great and Kasdan shows what a great talent he is behind the camera. Body Heat is a film with more depth than what it has been given credit for. A great, murky film.

A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984) ****1/2

Just as Jaws made you afraid to go into the water A Nightmare on Elm Street makes you afraid to fall asleep. Wes Craven has created the modern day bogeyman that can only get to you in your most vulnerable place-your unconscious.

In the town of Springwood a group of four friends (which includes Johnny Depp) begin to have nightmares about a razor fingered man in a red sweater and old brown hat: Freddy Krueger. Things go from bad to worse as the group is picked off one by one in their dreams by Freddy until it's down to the lone heroine (Heather Langenkamp) going militia on Freddy.

Wes Craven's creation was probably one of the most frightening images of 1980's horror cinema. That is until a long line of sequels that slowly turned him into a Don Rickles from hell, throwing off one liners as he dealt with the never ending supply of Elm Street children. But in the original film (and to a lesser degree the second one) Kruger (played by Robert Englund) is the embodiment of fear. Craven uses those weird dreamlike qualities to give those sleep sequences the feel of a dream: an example is the arms when they reach between two buildings in the alley. Your safest place is in your bed and even that is shattered in this film.

This is a horror masterpiece. It's one of those films that defined itself and didn't allow itself to become defined by its genre. The problem is the sequels that followed it, each becoming more and more camp as the numbers grew higher. Leave the first one as a standalone film and it's a great achievement on Craven's part. take it as part of the never ending series and it becomes diluted in the crazy scenarios and one liners of the following films.

The Verdict (1982) ****1/2

There are only a handful of courtroom dramas that could be considered great such as 12 Angry Men or even J.F.K. The Verdict stands almost above the rest as the ultimate underdog lawyer story.

Paul Newman stars as Frank Galvin, a worthless drunken lawyer who hasn't one a case in years and has become not an ambulance chaser, but a hearse chaser going from funeral to funeral and dropping off his card. His former partner Mickey (Jack Warden) throws him a case dealing with a woman who was rendered brain dead during a routine baby delivery. It's an easy money case. But in the blink of an eye it becomes more to Frank Galvin as he has an epiphany and starts caring more about punishing the negligent parties than about the paycheck that comes home at the end of the day, even if it's against the usual legal protocol.

This is one of Paul Newman's defining roles and it is a shame that he didn't win the Oscar for his portrayal of Galvin, a man who doesn't realize what he's done is wrong until after he's been called on it. He's a man of ideals that was crushed by his past and now he's digging his way out. Newman makes us feel for this lonely drunk playing pinball in Boston. James Mason is a great antagonist to Newman's Galvin as the opposing attorney. His cases are like well tuned machines that go off without a hitch. Mason gives us the feeling that he knows what the opposition is going to do before they do. Sadly, this is one of Mason's final performances and certainly the best before his death in 1984.

Director Sydney Lumet (Network, Dog Day Afternoon) delivers his usual true life feel to The Verdict and makes you feel like your inside the courtroom. Or the law office. Or the pub. You become part of Galvin's world through his lens in a great story. The only problem I find with the film that keeps it from a five star piece is the actual verdict scene seems tacked on (indeed it seems that the original script wasn't even going to reveal the verdict to the audience). Other than that The Verdict is a great courtroom drama/underdog story that gives us a little taste of what a lawyer has to deal with on his soul from day to day.

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)****1/2

Who would have thought that an adaptation of Homer's The Odyssey set during the Great Depression and featuring blue grass music would be so damn entertaining. O Brother, Where Art Thou is the story of three chain gang escapees named Everett (George Clooney), Pete (John Turturro), and Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson) who are going after a treasure that Everett supposedly buried after a big bank heist. Along the way they get sidetracked numerous times by bedeviled blues man, sirens that turn them into toads, and fall into a gubernatorial election.

This film has a great story and a great film. The Coens are hit or miss for me usually, but this one is definitely a hit. The story is almost detached from its source material and feels like an Americana folk tale like Johnny Appleseed. It's a fun and quirky jaunt to ones goals that doesn't have a dull moment in the entire film.

The cinematography and direction are first rate. The sepia tones make it feel like an old, worn letter written in the 1930's. The film looks like it has gone on this journey, especially during the dust bowl scenes. It's not all glossy and fresh. It's old and worn like the country was during this era.

O Brother, Where Art Thou is one of those films that you just don't know about. It's premise doesn't sound like something most people would be into but once they digest they're in for a wonderful ride through Mississippi.

Australia (2008) **

I should have been leery when I heard that the Australian Tourism Board helped finance this film. That's never a good sign. But the idea was promising and since it featured actual Australians I felt confident in a good, original film. That could never be further from the truth.

Australia is about an English "Lady" (Nicole Kidman) who travels to the continent thinking that her husband is fooling around at his cattle far. That could not be further from the truth- he's been murdered. With the help of "The Drover" (Hugh Jackman) she needs to drive the cattle into port so that she can save the ranch from the super cattle rancher that surrounds her property (played by Bryan Brown). Of course all of this is set against the major operations of the Japanese army in the South Pacific during World War II.

So what's my beef with Australia? I have to start by asking one question:

Have you ever seen Gone with the Wind?

This is the Australian version. Only this time there's no real direction.

True, the scenery is magnificent and Luhrman makes great use of his native topography, the film suffers from a stolen story and direction that is less than stellar. Everyone either over acts or underacts in this predictable film and it slowly becomes a parody of itself. The running time is also an issue and could have been easily resolved by condensing and combing both parts of the film. Just because your movie's long doesn't make it an epic.

At the end of the day I'm sure the film will achieve what it was financed to do- bring in a bunch of tourists who saw the film and wanted to visit the majestic Australian continent. Beyond that the film is basically fluff stuff to get to the National Geographic shots.

... And Justice For All (1979) ****

Al Pacino (along with Robert DeNiro) was probably the greatest actor of the 1970's. Long before he became the yelling guy that found his start in Scarface and was awarded for his noise in Scent of a Woman, Pacino was an actor's actor. He ended his reign in the 1970's with ... And Justice For All, a courtroom drama that wasn't a very stellar story but overcame its problems with great acting and direction.

Arthur Kirkland (Pacino) is an idealistic defense attorney that tends to grate against the established legal hierarchy in Baltimore. He soon finds himself juggling two cases where the defendants don't really belong in jail, a suicidal judge (jack Warden), a girlfriend (Christine Lahti) who is investigating ethics issues in the courts, and the judge (John Forsythe) he hates who asks him to defend him in a rape trial. That's a ton of stuff to juggle and as the movie progresses Arthur becomes more and more disgusted by the way the law has turned into a car lot mentality. "Let's make a deal! Let's make a deal!"

The story is just so-so. There are points that feel like pure manipulation and predictability is the standard. The thing about this film is that when you dissect it into its acting and directing you get more than what the total film really is. The acting from all levels is superb with that young Pacino leading the way. he was still a king in 1979. Jewison directs the film in a way that leaves room for comedy and a little bit of tension. He makes a bland story interesting.

... And Justice For All has been shafted for years as some of Pacino's lesser work, but when you look at it from a technical standpoint and forget about the many flaws of the script you see what a precision picture this film really is. A '70's classic that closed the decade with class.

Where Eagle's Dare (1968) **

Where Eagles Dare is about a group of Brits led by Major Smith (Richard Burton) and one American (Clint Eastwood) whose mission is to penetrate a fortress and bring back an American general who has the plans for the second wave of Allied European assault.

This is your basic, straightforward, 1960's WWII movie where they take an established star (Burton) and an up and comer (Eastwood) and send them on an impossible mission against thousands of Nazis. The problem with Where Eagles Dare is that by the time you get to any kind of pay off you really don't care. You'll be bored to tears by the never ending action sequences as characters swing back and forth between sets over and over again. The two hour forty minute running time could have easily been trimmed to make the film run a little easier, but that would still not make up for Burton's performance. Burton tries to be the star, yet Eastwood steals the stage, which isn't saying much because Eastwood is given very little to work with in his character. He's practically playing a plank. Burton, who was intoxicated through much of the shoot, pales in comparison.

There are a few good sequences throughout the film, but most of it drags on and on and never really reaches its destination. You'll need a score card for all the plot twists and a pillow for the inevitable nap.

Sea of Love (1989) ***1/2

Al Pacino attempted to save his career with the cop thriller Sea of Love which kicked the era of Pacino playing detectives into overdrive. Pacino plays Detective Frank Keller, a burnt out cop whose wife has left him leaving him lonely and drunk most of the time. His begins a homicide investigation into an almost execution style slaying in which the victim is found nude on the bed while a 45 rpm record of "Sea of Love" plays in the background. More murders pile up leading them to a personal column. Keller and his partner Sherman (John Goodman) go undercover by writing an ad and going on "dates" with numerous replies. It's on one of these "dates" that Keller meets Helen Cruger (Ellen Barkin) who develops a relationship with Keller and also slowly becomes the investigations chief suspect.

Sea of Love is your paint by numbers crime thriller. It's a predictable piece that, even though its characters are well defined and acted, tends to follow a treasure map to the prize at the end- the big reveal. The big reveal is satisfying and when you think about it actually makes sense (as opposed to other films of this ilk). Pacino gives us an OK performance. Certainly not his best, but it's been a lot worse. Barkin is great as the femme fatale, sexy with an attitude. John Goodman plays the sidekick without being the funnyman to Pacino's straight man. Overall this is a slightly above average film that delivers as promised just like the hundreds of other movies before and after it.

Born on the Fourth of July (1989) ****

Some movies act like a microcosm of history. They take one little part of an enormous picture and use it to show how the little piece of the big picture affected each other.

With Born on the Fourth of July Oliver Stone shows us how gung-ho America was going into the Vietnam war and how that conflict affected millions of lives by looking at one life in that war: Ron Kovic (Tom Cruise). The film opens with the youngster Kovic watching a Fourth of July parade in the 1950's that reeks of apple pie and Eisenhower. Kids played soldier in the woods to mimic their dads and uncles stories from Europe in the decade before. Jump ahead to Kovic near graduation and deciding to join the Marines. He is still gung ho and ready to die for his country in a war in Vietnam that will be "over before we get there". He goes to Vietnam where two tragic events change his life forever in which one of them is taking a NVA bullet that renders him paralyzed from the chest down. He returns to a different America, polarized by the war and finds himself slowly seeing that the war wasn't as honorable as he thought it was.

Tom Cruise finally got some respect from this film, proving that he could be more than the guy in his underwear dancing to Bob Seger or flying airplanes. By his return home he is a beaten man and it shows in his appearance. To me, this is Tom Cruise's first great performance. The remainder of the film from his return is mainly Stone showing Kovic's reaction to the turmoil that was the late '60's and the early '70's. The film shouts at us that this is how a million people reacted to it by looking at this one, lone man. It's a fascinating journey that Stone takes us on with ups and downs and the resentments and triumphs that go along with it. A terrific biopic.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) ***1/2

Woody Allen travels to Barcelona with another examination of love with Vicky Cristina Barcelona. The story follows Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) and their summer trip in Barcelona. Vicky is working on her thesis and preparing for upcoming wedding. Cristina is there to sort herself again, a woman who isn't quite sure what her purpose is in life. Enter artist Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem) who turns their summer upside down. Both women end up in a relationship with him but their differing psyches cause them to react to the situation in different ways, especially when his ex-wife (Penelope Cruz) crazily enters the picture.

At the heart of this film is Woody Allen. Even though it's in Spain it is still reminicent of Allen's new York films. It doesn't sugarcoat love. It gives it a real face, even though at times it's obscured for hilaritys sake. The acting and direction are great, as expected. The only problem is that the film tends to drag in some places. It's more interesting with Cruz on screen than the two leads. When you look back at the film she is the spine of the film- every runs through her, even though she's barely in half of it.