COMEDIES

These are my movie recommendations, incomplete and in no particular order. They typically are not suitable for children. Assume a R rating for each one.


COMEDIES

Zero Effect -- about a PI who is the best in the world, yet cannot help being a paranoid, neurotic recluse. 3.5/5

Barton Fink. An acclaimed dramatist moves to Hollywood to make his fortune writing for the movies but ends up with writer's block when he tries to write. A strange, surreal, but funny film. (see Drama) 4/5

Much Ado About Nothing -- romantic comedy by Shakespeare set in medieval times. 4/5

Being There. A story about a man whose only knowledge about the world has come from television until he has to leave his cocoon. A great cast and superb writing/story have made this film a classic satire. 5/5

The Big Lebowski. Cohen movie about a California bum who is mistaken for someone else and becomes entangled in a kidnapping/murder plot; hilarious story played by a star-studded cast. 5/5

Unstrung Heroes -— story of a young boy growing up with an inventor father and two crazy uncles, the latter at which he stays one summer. Coming-of-age. 3.5/5

Freeway -- satire, a white trash girl with bad temper gets into trouble. 3.5/5

Antz -- an animated movie with astounding graphics and premier actors. 4/5

Tampopo -- subtitled, a Japanese widow wants to open a noodle restaurant. Comedy. 5/5

Life is Beautiful -- subtitled, an Italian Jew in pre-Nazi occupied Italy meets and marries his wife, comedy/drama. 4/5

Shakespeare in Love -- a young Shakespeare tries to write Romeo and Juliet but then is inspired by love. 5/5

The Fisher King -- a radio show host feels condemned for inciting a homicidal psychotic on his show until he meets the man whose family was killed, about imagination and redemption. 4/5

High Fidelity. A unique and very funny story about an elitist record store owner trying to re-acquaint with his top ten ex-girlfriends. 4.5/5

Down and Out in Beverly Hills. A Hollywood bum (Nick Nolte) is saved by a rich family and is invited to live with them in their home. 4/5

Old School. Three thirtysomething buddies open a frat house. 4/5

Briget Jones' Diary. A British comedy about a thirty year old girl trying to juggle various pressures from boss, work, parents, and the lack of a love-life. 3.5/5

Adaptation. An original comedy-drama regarding a Hollywood writer adapting a book about orchids. Excellent acting and script. 4.5/5

Moonstruck. An woman of Italian descent falls in love with her fiancee's unpredictable brother. Romantic and funny. 5/5

Dr. Strangelove. A classic satire about the paranoia and madness during the Cold War. Kubrick and Peter Sellers at their best. (also in War Section) 5/5

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Steve Martin tries to get home on a snowy Thanksgiving holiday. 5/5

Working Girl. A classic comedy from the eighties about a secretarytrying to climb the corporate ladder. 3.5/5

Going South. Hilarious comedy about a horse thief (Jack Nicholson) that is forced to marry or hang for his crimes (Danny Devito, Chistopher Lloyd) 5/5

The Delicatessen. A french film. A black comedy set in an apartment building in a post-apocalyptic Paris. (also Foreign Sect.) 3.5/5

Say Anything. A high-school graduate falls for a quirky classmate and tries to work out what to do with her life. John Cusack is superb. 4/5

Tommy Boy. A boss' son (Farley) goes on sales tour with his wisecracking partner to save the family company. Simply... a classic. 4/5

Caddyshack. A golfcourse caddy must kiss various butts and win a tourney to get scholarship. Chevy Chase, Murray, Dangerfield, and Baxter make this a must see. 5/5

The Player. A satiric look at the Hollywood machine that churns out one crappy genre picture after another as it chews up executives and spits them out. Sharp and witty. 4/5

O Brother Where Art Thou?. Three escaped convicts on the lamb travel across 1930's South toward a buried treasure. Another Cohen masterpiece. 5/5

Young Frankenstein. A hilarious spoof on monster movies by Mel Brooks with Gene Wilder, Gene Hackman, and Peter Boyle. 5/5

Secondhand Lions. Two old bachelors take in a young boy without a father. Duvall and Caine. 3.5/5

A Fish Called Wanda. Thieves and thugs screw up extortion schemes. The monty python cast headline this film with Jamie Curtis and Kevin Cline as a hilarious paranoid assassin. 4/5

Do the Right Thing. Spike Lee's debute film, a series of comic stories set in Harlem. A brilliant independent picture. John Turturro is great as an Italian pizzaria worker in black harlem. 3.5/5

Good Morning Vietnam. Based on a true story. A radio host arrives in Vietnam and jump-starts a dreary military radio station with his comedy. 3.5/5

The Accidental Tourist. A beautiful film about loss and love. A damaged man becomes intrigued with a woman who helps him with his dog. 4.5/5

Amelie. French film. A young woman in Paris becomes intrigued by a 'secret admirer' and tries to discover who he is. A quirky, very original, and very romantic comedy. 4/5

Animal House. A hilarious comedy about a frat house full of malcontents and slackers bent on partying and cheating their way through school. Great movie, and an inspiration to my scholastic life. 4/5

Risky Business. This film shows a young Tom Cruise being left alone at home in the suburbs as his parents travel to Europe for a vacation; he tries and fails to resist the temptations of having the house to himself. 3/5

Ferris Bueller's Day Off. The classic comedy about a highschool student (a charming Matt Broadrick) skipping school with his girlfriend and bestfriend to hang out and have fun. 5/5

The Hangover.  Five friends travel to Las Vegas for a stag party, and after a crazy night that no one can remember, they lose the groom. 4/5

DRAMAS

These are my movie recommendations, incomplete and in no particular order. They typically are not suitable for children. Assume a R rating for each one.


THE DRAMAS

Short Cuts -- nine interlocking stories set in contemporary Los Angeles. 5/5

Raging Bull -- the story of a boxer, boxing, and the dark side of human excess. 5/5

Bringing Out the Dead. A Scorsese film about an ambulance driver in NYC's slums (Nick Cage) who is falling apart with guilt over not being able to save a little girl and tries to come to terms with the past. 3.5/5

Deer Hunter. Three best friends go to Vietnam and the war changes them. Epic beauty and sadness. (also in War Sect.) 4/5

Oleanna. A Mamet film about a teacher and his student and their struggle for power, control, and good understanding. 3.5/5

Dead Ringers. Cronenberg's strange film about twin doctors, who cannot escape each other. Both brothers are played by Jeremy Irons who does an incredible job playing a dominant and submissive pair. 4/5

Ordinary People. Oscar Winner about the effect of a brother's death on a young man and his parents. Hauntingly beautiful. 5/5

An Angel at My Table. Based on a true story. It's about an Australian girl who strives to become a writer despite a misdiagnosed condition. Excellent story. 4/5

The Lion in Winter. Three sons struggle and manipulate for the medieval Kingdom of their aging father and mother. O'Toole, Hopkins, Hepburn are brilliant. 3.5/5

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. An Albee play. Richard Burton and Taylor depict a middle-aged couple battling each other intermingling of love and hate. Incredible script and acting. 5/5

Lone Star. A complex mystery/drama about a sheriff in a small contemporary town in Texas on the border of Mexico. 4.5/5

Breaking the Waves. A story about a woman whose overpowering love allows her to sacrifice everything for her lover. 4/5

The Shawshank Redemption. A wrongly accused man is sent to jail where he adapts and becomes indespensible to the warden. 4.5/5

The Red Violin -- movie traces a rare violin through history, chronicling its different owners. Drama. 3.5/5

Damage. A politician has a torrid affair with his son's fiance to ruinous result. Great script and acting. 4/5

Awakenings. A catatonic man awakes from years of incapacity and revels in the beauty of life. Robin Williams & DeNiro are excellent. 3.5/5

Barfly. A surprising story about a drunk (Mickey Roark) who lives from drink to drink and writes poetry on the side. 3/5

Mac. This hard-to-find film is about three brothers in construction who get sick of working for others and open their own company. 3.5/5

A Room with a View. Based on the Forrester novel, this simple love story is unforgettable. 3/5

The Lover. This beautifully scripted and shot love story is about the coming of age of a young woman in southeast Asia. Highly erotic. 3.5/5

Three Seasons. An elegantly filmed romance between two Vietnamese in modern Vietnam as well as two other stories. Multiple independent award winner. 4/5

The Unforgiven. Haunting Western about a retired killer that comes out of retirement to kill for money. 4.5/5

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Classic story about family, love, resentment, inheritance, and being true to one's self. 3.5/5

Night of the Iguana. A drinking, lecherous priest takes a Mexican tour of older women to a rundown resort operated by an old flame. There he tries to find redemption. 3.5/5

Slacker. A roving camera moves around a suburban city, following people listening to their daily lives before moving on to another person, a celebration of existence. 4/5

The Loss of Innocence. Intersecting stories about the various ways a person loses their innocence during their journey through life. Beautiful and haunting, yet uneven. 3/5

Female Perversions. Follows a female lawyer and shows the various ways women are pressured by society to conform to a certain undeterminate model. 4/5

Tully. Two brother in a small farming town find out something surpring about their missing mother. 4/5

Glengarry Glen Ross. A star-studded film about telephone salesmen under pressure. 3.5/5

Barton Fink. A theatre writer goes to early Hollywood to write pulp movies only to get writer's block. A strange, surreal film. 4/5

What's Cooking?. Four stories about four families (Black, Jewish, Korean, Hispanic) having thanksgiving dinner. 4/5

Thirteen. This film captures the traumas of being a female teen. 3.5/5

Kids. A poignant drama about urban teens bored and searching for sex, parties, and trouble. 4/5

Adaptation. An original comedy-drama regarding a Hollywood writer adapting a book about orchids. (also Comedies) 4.5/5

Moonstruck. An woman of Italian descent falls in love with her fiancee's unpredictable brother. Romantic and funny. (also Comedies) 5/5

The Conversation. Hackman stars as a surveillance expert that monitors a conversation he was not supposed to and worries about his safety. Coppola captures the paranoid seventies. 4/5

Schindler's List. An opportunistic German citizen seizes a chance to save lives during WW2. 4/5

The Right Stuff -- The New space program looks for the best of the best to send into space. Excellent cast. 4/5

The Hustler. Paul Newman plays a pool player whose pride costs him everything. 3.5/5

12 Angry Men. Henry Fonda and other play a jury arguing a murder trial. 4/5

Moonlight Mile. A pending wedding is interrupted by tragedy leaving the fiancee and in-laws in an awkward space. 4/5

Cinema Paradiso. Foreign, Italian boy grows up going to the movies. 5/5

Changing Lanes. Two men have an accident on a freeway and it changes both their lives. Ben Afleck and Samuel Jackson. 3.5/5

Amadeus. Bio of the famous composer Mozart and his struggles to get his work completed. 4/5

On the Waterfront. The mob and waterfront union join to suppress workers; one stands up against them. 5/5

Monster's Ball. The lives of a black woman and a white man prison guard intersect in the South. Excellent, complex drama. 4/5

Sheltering Sky. A married couple travel to the African desert with a friend who loves the woman (Debra Winger). 3/5

English Patient. A mysterious burn victim during WW2 becomes the center of intersecting stories. Inspired film from an inspired book, romantic and beautiful. 4/5

Shadow of the Vampire. A film about the making of the 1938 Nosferatu vampire classic. Good acting, inventive story. 4/5

Tender Mercies -- drama, famous cowboy singer stops drinking & changes his life, leaving everything behind. 4/5

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. A sane criminal gets himself into the nuthouse and makes mischief amoungst the residents. 5/5

13 Conversations about One Thing. Star-studded cast fronts this film of intersecting stories about happiness and contentment. 3.5/5

The Mission. A missionary converting aboriginies in the South American returns to his military past to defend the indians from conquistadors. 4/5

Dead Poet's Society. Beautifully told story about a new prof that changes lives in a rich prep school. 4/5

Lawrence of Arabia. A British geogrpher leaves his paper to join and lead arab insurgents against imperialistic Turks. 5/5

The Eternal Sunshine of A Spotless Mind. A strange out-of-sequence movies about a guy so torn by a breakup that he goes to a specialist to have the memories removed. Amazing romance.

Leaving Las Vegas. Having lost everything, an executivetravels to Las Vegas to drink himself to death. 3.5/5

9 1/2 Weeks. Erotic flirtations abound in this cult classic. 3/5

Shadowlands. Playing CS Lewis, Anthony Hopkins acts superbly as a man who finds and loses the love of his life to cancer. 3.5/5

Naked. Raw and uncompromising, the film follows a young man who believes in nothing. 3.5/5

Grand Canyon. -A tow-truck driver (Danny Glover) saves a man (Steve Martin) from trouble and they become friends. 4.5/5

Like Water for Chocolate. Spanish. Multi -generational story about a family and how food has marked each critical moment in the family history. 3.5/5

When a Man Loves a Woman. This story centers around a man trying to get his wife sober. 3.5/5

Titus. Shakespeare's vicious revenge play. 5/5

City of Hope. Multiple stories intersect in this film that revolves around a strained father-son relationship. (Sayles writes/directs, see Lonestar above) 4/5


Driving Miss Daisy. A crusty old lady from the Old South wants her 'negro' driver to drive her across the state.  4/5

The Green Mile. 3.5/5

Signs. 3/5

My Left Foot. A young boy with cerebral palsy and born into an impoverished Irish family becomes a celebrated artist and writer. 4/5

The Rapture. 3/5

You Can Count on Me. A single mother working at a bank and struggling with balancing being a mom that works receives a visit from her nomadic brother.  3.5/4

In the Bedroom. The summer before he heads off to University, a young man with great promise as a designer falls in love with an older woman with a crazy ex-husband.  4/5

Jesus' Son. A strange and unique story about a young, wandering, innocent man whose journey in life is full of love, laughter, and tragedy. 4/5

The American President. The US President, a single father, finds love in the white house. 4/5

Primary Colors. A presidential candidate campaigns through personal problems and dilemas which test his character and that of his 'team.' 3.5/5

Born on the Fourth of July. A young man goes to Vietnam and comes home disabled and confused. 4/5

Drugstore Cowboy. Thieves rob drugstores for drugs to party. 4/5

Running on Empty. Child finally finds out why his family never stays anywhere very long. 5/5

The Unbearable Lightness of Being -- drama, a torrid love affair in Czechslovakia leaves characters bitter sweet. 3.5/5

Howard's End. A love story in quiet, hesitant English society. 4/5

Remains of the Day. An English butler becomes fond of new housekeeper. 5/5

Empire of The Sun. A child loses his parents when Japan invades China, and he ends up in a camp struggling to survive. 5/5

Hiroshima, Mon Amour. French, subtitled, a french actress has an affair with a Japanese man, and they discuss each other's lives, beautiful writing. 4.5/5

Zentropa. German, subtitled, an American moves to Germany just after WWII, and gets a job on the trains. Strange movie. 3/5

Poetry.  Korean, subtitled. The film explores a 60ish woman stuck raising her lazy, precocious grandson who decides to take a community poetry class. 4.5/5

True Grit. Western. A teenage girl arrives in a town to collect the body of her murdered father; after settling the arraigment, she hires a down-and-out gunslinger to pursue the killer. 4/5 

THE WAR MOVIES

These are my movie recommendations, incomplete and in no particular order. They typically are not suitable for children. Assume a R rating for each one.



WAR MOVIES

Saving Private Ryan. A squad of soldiers are sent to retrieve a lost soldier whose three brothers had already died in the war. 3.5/5

Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb. A satiric comedy about the Cold War and the militaristic paranoia it engendered. 5/5

Das Boot (Director's cut). German sailors in a submarine withstand the weather and the enemy in this outstandingly realistic portrayal. 5/5

Black hawk Down. Special Forces soldiers sent to capture rebel leaders become trapped and must fight their way out of Mogadishu, Somalia. 4/5

Jacob's Ladder. Psychodelic film about a Vietnam vet who is convinced he was experimented on during war. 3/5

Full Metal Jacket. Vietnam war film follows soldier through basic training and into The Nam. Stanley Kubrick film. 4/5

Platoon. A young man goes to Vietnam and joins a platoon that becomes like a second family. 5/5

Apocalypse Now. A special forces assassin travels up a river from Vietnam to Cambodia to kill a rogue colonel. 5/5

The Deer Hunter. Three friends go to Vietnam and the war changes them in different ways making their return home difficult. 4/5

Band of Brothers. The 101st airborne's story in WW2 from start to finish. Outstanding stories, cast, and film production make this film series the best war film ever. 5/5

Salvador. A fast-talking, end-of-the-road journalist goes to El Salvaddor to cover the civil war in the 80s. 3/5

Born on the Fourth of July. A young Tom Cruise goes to Vietnam and comes home disabled and confused. 3.5/5

Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam. A striking and moving documentary documenting letters sent to and from Nam. 3.5/5

The Empire of the Sun. The son of rich British parents becomes lost when Japan invades China in the late 30's and struggles to survive. 5/5

Schindler's List. A German citizen and war opportunist/profiteer seizes an opportunity to save the Jewish workers in his sweatshop during WW2. Spielberg film. 3.5/5

Paths of Glory. Three soldiers in the First World War are accused of cowardice, but their colonel insists on a proper trail and acts as their legal representative. Stanley Kubrick's first big feature film. Exquisite on all levels. 4/5

Patton. The story of the infamous American General as he leads his men from Africa to Italy and then Germany. 3.5/5

A Bridge Too Far. The story of the Allied attempt to secure the various bridges that give access to Germany efore the German Army blows them and halts the Allied advance. 3/5

Twelve O'Clock High. A WW2 story told from the persective of the British-based bomber crews that bombed Germany daily with high losses. 3.5/5

English Patient. A mysterious burn victim during WW2 becomes the center of intersecting stories. Inspired film from an inspired book, romantic and beautiful. 4/5

HISTORICAL ACTION

Lawrence of Arabia. A classic epic about a cartographer who emerges as a natural leader and is sent into Arabia by the British to rally the Arabs against the Turks. 4/5

Master and Commander. A 17th Century British Navy vessel is charged to find and destroy a larger, more powerful ship. 4.5/5

Gladiator. A general in the Roman Legion is framed and sold to slavers where he becomes a gladiator and waits for a chance to return too Rome. 4/5

Rob Roy. A scottish tribesman defies an English Lord bent on suppressing the populous. 4/5

Braveheart. William Wallace makes his life-mission to avenge his wife and push the English out of Scotland with the help of unified clans. 3.5/5

The Mission. A missionary converting aboriginies in the South American returns to his military past to defend the indians from conquistadors. 4/5

Kingdom of Heaven. A blacksmith, in the time of the crusades, is visited by the father he did not know but who is a noble headed to Jerusalem to defend it from Muslim armies. The smith follows his father. Liam Nielsen, Orlando Bloom, Jeremy Irons.

ACTION AND CRIME MOVIES

These are my movie recommendations, incomplete and in no particular order. They typically are not suitable for children. Assume a R rating for each one.



ACTION | CRIME

L.A. Confidential. An elaborately casted and filmed crime thriller about police corruption in Los Angeles in the fifties.

Bound -- a thriller about two women who try to rob a lot of money from organized crime with sex, murder, and smarts.

Jackie Brown -- Tarantino tells a smooth tale about crime, criminals, and money, where a bail-bondsman walks a tightrope with a career criminal and arms dealer (Samuel Jackson).

The Bad Lieutenant -- the descent and suffering of a corrupt, addicted policeman.

The Last Seduction. A beautiful woman with no conscience seeks power and money, using her sex appeal to manipulate men into her con games.

House of Games. David Mamet's complex movie about con-men who scam for a living, told from the perspective of a psychologist who is given a back-door past into the confidence world.

One False Move. A suspenseful crime thriller about three killers driving across southern United States toward a small town where a naive sheriff and two FBI wait for their arrival.

Chinatown. A classic post-noir mystery set in Los Angeles in the fifties. A private investigator (Jack Nicolson) becomes entangled in a murder and money scheme.

A Simple Plan -- three men find millions in a wrecked airplane nobody else knows about.

Silence of the Lambs -- a young FBI woman helps conduct an investigation into a serial killer.

Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer -- an intimate look at the day to day existence of a serial killer.

Memento. A tale about a guy with no memory who is looking for his wife's killer. The very original story is told in reverse.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. The story of a man with an incredile sense of smell who begins killing women to preserve their particular scents.

Irreversible. A story told in reverse order of a man and his friend looking for the thug that raped and beat up his wife.

The Vanishing (European version). A travelling couple stop at a rest-stop to gas the car and use the bathroom and one of them never returns to the car.

Thomas Crown Affair (Both versions). A rich tycoon relieves his boredom by manufactoring complicated heists until he becomes pursued by a seductive insurance investigator. Like The Getaway, these two versions are the same story with interesting differences.

The Getaway (Both versions). A man is doule-crossed and goes to jail, but the local mob need him for a heist so they have him paroled early; however, this time the man does the doule-crossing.

Sin City. From the comics by Miller, intersecting crime stories in a fictious hard-boiled city.

The Bourne Identity. Jason Bourne, a highly trained killer, is tasked to kill a warlord on his yacht but is shot and tumbles overboard into the Mediterranean where he is picked up by a fishing vessel to find out he has lost his memory and the trust of the government that hired him.

The Bourne Supremacy. Jason is hiding in plain sight in a small town in India when a contract killer shows up trying to kill him, the attempt killing the woman he loves. His search for answers and vengeance is full of twists and turns and high powered action.

The Bourne Ultimatum. Completing the trilogy, this film takes place almost immediately after the previous film in Moscow. The film starts fast and the action does not let up; it's a real thrill ride. In my opinion, this trilogy stands up against any other including LOTRs and STAR WARS.

2 Days in the Valley. Intersecting crime stories involving hitmen, mafia, cops, and bystanders.

Bullitt. A witness against the mob becomes a target of assassination.

The Usual Suspects. Local criminals are hired by a mysterious crime-lord to execute a major heist. Brilliant.

The Shawshank Redemption. A wrongly accused man is sent to jail where he adapts and becomes indespensible to the warden. 4.5/5

Italian Job. Team of thieves pull off a major job only to become betrayed.

Ronin. A mysterious irish woman hires ex-CIA and former spies to steal a silver briefcase from an arms dealer.

The Firm. A young lawyer discovers his new firm is crooked but cannot leave without endangering everyone he loves.

Ordinary Decent Criminal. A crime comic-drama about a charismatic criminal outwitting cops.

Runaway Jury. A major tobacco trial brings out the heavy-duty jury consultants and a couple of opportunists take advantage and threaten to tamper with the jury unless paid.

Scarface. A classic crime story about a Cuban immigrant becoming a drug lord.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. A classic spaghetti western about the search for a chest full of silver coins.

Goodfellas. The story of three friends growing up in the mob -- crime, Scorsese film about life in the mob.

The Proposition -- In the harsh setting of 19th century Australia, the younger of two outlaw brothers is captured and coerced into helping with the capture of his older brother with unforeseen results. Ray Winstone.

Clockwork Orange -- strange cautionary tale about violence and social science in a psychedelic 1970's setting.

The Unforgiven. Haunting Western about a retired killer that comes out of retirement to kill for money. 4.5/5

Drugstore Cowboy. Thieves rob drugstores for drugs to party. 4/5

Frailty. Crime-horror, men can see people's sins.

The Assignment --

Wild at Heart -- adventure, released prisoner and girl are hunted by girl's mother.

The Wild Bunch.

Miller's Crossing -- 1920's gangsters start a war between Irish & Italians.

Pulp Fiction -- dramatic-action, criminals & thugs pursue money and freedom.

Redrock West -- stranger comes to town and mistaken identity gets him in trouble.

Blood Simple -- crime, stranger comes to town and is implicated in murder.

The Cell. a woman goes into the mind of a serial killer to find hostage.

Runaway Train. suspense, Prisoners escaped from prison and hijacked a train.

To Live and Die in LA. -- suspense-action, a thrill seeking cop tries to arrest a counterfeit expert.

Mean Streets -- thugs on streets survive.

Lone Star. A complex mystery/drama about a sheriff in a small contemporary town in Texas on the border of Mexico. 4.5/5

Seven.

Kalifornia. A couple traveling across the southern states trying to visit historic serial killer places take along a brash young couple who become more and than they can handle. Brad Pitt, Juliette Lewis, David Duchovny.

Angel Heart. A down and out investigator is hired to find a woman but the search leads him to Louisiana where he becomes a target of voodoo witchcraft and becomes the suspect of a rash of the serial killings. Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro.

Dead Calm. A couple out sailing are stuck in a dead calm when a stranger arrives in a blow-up boat with a strange tale of death and a deadly agenda.

Croupier. A roulette wheel dealer must decide whether to assist in the theft of the casino or do nothing or reveal the plot. Clive Owen.

Dolores Claibourne. A woman living with an abusive, alcoholic husband contemplates killing him during an upcoming eclipse. Kathy Bates, Jessica Jennifer Leigh.

The Edge. A highly clever billionaire travels with his entourage to the lodge in the great Canadian North. He becomes lost with the one person that would like to see him dead. Alec Baldwin, Anthony Hopkins.

Frantic. American tourist in Europe discovers his wife has been kidnapped and the authorities unwilling to believe him or help in searching. Harrison Ford.

The Princess & The Warrior. German film about two people with different lives - the girl is a care-aid at a medical facility, and the man is an army vet trying to pull off a heist - that intersect randomly and develop a strange love story.

When Night Falls on Manhattan. A young district attorney is assigned to a police shooting which turns out to be a widespread police corruption case.

Heat. A bank heist goes wrong for a career criminal.

Body Heat. A lawyer becomes involved in murder and love.

The Grifters. The mother and master grifter of a young con-artist tries to keep her son out of the business.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (THE TRILOGY). An adventurer/historian seeks lost treasure.

Criminal. Con-artists teach a up-and-coming grifter about the business of disloyalty.

Taken

Harry Brown

Generation Kill (miniseries)

13 Assassins

Inception

Restrepo

Book of Eli

The Kingdom

Body of Lies

True Grit (Cohens)

Ripley's Game.

FOREIGN

These are my foreign movie recommendations, incomplete and in no particular order. They typically are not suitable for children. Assume a R rating for each one.


FOREIGN

Camille Claudel. A french, subtitled movie about a female sculptor in the nineteenth century who was an apprentice to the famous Rodin. Beautifully acted and filmed drama.

Wings of Desire. A German drama about an angel that falls in love with a human woman and wishes he were human in order to love her.

Cyrano de Bergerac. A classic French drama about a robust, poetic soldier with an enormous nose who uses a handsome double to serenade a woman with his poetry.

Ran. A Japanese drama, subtitled, about a medieval shogun whose children betray him for power. Powerful and intense story.

Das Boot. German, subtitled, a story about German submarine crew in world war two.

Troi Coloures: Bleu. Three Colors: Blue. French, subtitled, about a woman who copes after a tragic car accident. First movie in the trilogy. The colours symbolize loosely the three tenets of French nationalism: liberty, fraternity, and elegality.

Troi Coloures: Blanc. White. French, subtitled, a man rebuilds his life after being robbed. Second in the trilogy.

Troi Coloures: Rouge. Red. French, subtitled, a model returns an injured dog and develops a relationship with its elderly owner. Last of the trilogy.

The Delicatessen. French, subtitled, a black comedy set in a post apocalyptic world.

Working on The Movies Page

I'm working on my movies page where I list some of the movies that have entertained me, simulated my imagination, or hit me like a runaway train. I have selected these movies in terms of film/cast quality, quality of writing/story, and originality (or bringing something original to a well-established genre).

I'm grouping my recomends in terms of genre: adventure/thriller/crime on one page; comedy on another; war & drama; and on the last page, minor genres: science fiction/fantasy/weird & documtentary.

I'm going to work on a classics page too.

Each film will have a small blurb and/or a link, so that you have an idea if it's for you, but I should emphasize that these films are to be considered R for Restricted, mostly for violence and language but nudity as well. Several are disturbing, I'll try to indicate which.

My choices in books and movies are similar in my gravitation to the strange and the disturbing. Iwonder if it's because I've become inured or desensitized to feeling disgust and shock and I need ... well, Kafka said it best about books but I think it applies for movies as well:

"Altogether, I think we ought to read only books that bite and sting us. If the book does not shake us awake like a blow to the skull, why bother reading it in the first place? So that it can make us happy, as you put it? Good God, we'd be just as happy if we had no books at all; books that make us happy we could, in a pinch, also write ourselves. What we need are books that hit us like a most painful misfortune, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, that make us feel as though we had been banished to the woods, far from any human presence, like a suicide. A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us. That is what I believe.”
–To Oskar Pollak, January 27, 1904

Is the ice around my heart-sea from too much violence/horror like callouses or scars or does it stem from the banality and dullness of suburbia? Kafka wrote books that do this to a reader. His short stories stab deep into the gut and twist. His novel The Trial is simply brilliant in it's ability to worm into your consciousness and break you up from the inside.

Anyway, let me know if you find a movie you hadn't seen before and really enjoyed.

Something to Watch .... finally

There is an excellent series on PBS right now called America at a Crossroads which engages the dilema the US is facing with the Iraq War. It's an eleven part documentary series spread over six days. It's on tonight at nine, I believe. Two one hour episodes called The Gangs of Iraq and The Case for War.

I watched the two episodes yesturday, Warriors and Homecoming, one which followed six soldiers in Iraq just to see what their daily lives were like, long moments of boredom with flashes of chaos; the other looked at soldiers that had come home and put their experiences on paper as stories or poems, and it talked with other soldiers from other wars that had done the same. Both shows were excellent.

Hockey is on too, but whatever.

Killing is Easy....

It doesn't take much to get yourself a semi-automatic assault rifle and kill a bunch of students. Just watching the cell-phone video and hearing the shots, I could tell it was a medium caliber assault maching pistol (Tek-9)/assault rifle (AR-15, M-16), most likely a 5.56 or 9mm. I'm assuming a rifle, as those pistols are very inaccurate. He was shooting in semi mode, picking people off. Of course, he could've had a shotgun before or after the video too; something like a Browning or Beretta autoloader. Maybe he's packing a cheap 9mm handgun for cleanup.

It's easy. You could buy the whole works at a gunshow for cash. Or maybe order it online from somewhere like Guns America or one of the many other buy/sell gun sites. I saw a local investigative report where a reporter did just that. For cash. No wait period.

It's no secret. There are sites that'll tell you how to turn your semi-auto into fully auto for those fire supression situations once the cops arrive. Then there's the silencer sites so you can put down a bunch of targets before they know what's happening. Then there's barricade & bomb construction, etc.

But why .. is what I can't figure. Hostages, demands.. I can see. Trying to make a statement or change something or call attention to something.. I can kind of understand it. But random killing then (perhaps) suicide makes no sense. My sense of Columbine was the same. Gus Van Sant's moving docu-drama Elephant doesn't really shed any light on WHY, and neither has any of the articles I've read about that particular shooting.

CNN has 31 deaths so far. One shooter (appearently). That in a pretty short time. He might have had a suppressed weapon. Or maybe he was a marine, like in Full Metal Jacket, Kubrick's masterful anti-war movie. From the screenplay, in boot camp:

Later they are grouped around [Sgt.] Gerheim. "Does
anyone known who Charles Whitman was?"
Blank faces.
"None of you dumbasses knows?"
Cowboy slowly raises his hand.
"Private Cowboy?"
"Was he the guy that shot a lot of people
from a roof?"
"That's right, Private Cowboy. He shot and
killed twelve people from a 28-story observation
tower at the University of Texas, from distances
of up to four hundred yards."
The recruits look impressed.
"Does anybody know who Lee Harvey Oswald
was?"
That's easy. Almost every hand goes up.
"Private Snowball?"
Private Snowball says, "He shot Kennedy, Sir!"
"That's right. And do you know how far away
he was?"
"It was pretty far. From that book
suppository building, sir!"
"Two hundred and fifty" feet. He was two
hundred and fifty feet away and shooting at a
moving target. He got off three shots with a bolt
action rifle in six seconds, and got two hits,
including a head shot. Do you know where those
men learned to shoot like that?"
No one knows. Joker raises his hand.
"Private Joker."
"In the Marines sir?"
"In the Marines. Outstanding! Now those
people did not put their Marine training to a good
purpose but they showed what a Marina with his
rifle can do, and before I am through you will all
be able to do the same thing."
Leonard stares at Gerheim.

Yeah, I know it's cavalier but look at their culture, look at their gun culture. Why are these weapons available? Why haven't things changed there since Columbine? The NRA/gun lobby?

Well, it didn't take long for CNN to cash in, huh. Paula Zahn's set up interviews for this afternoon. Cooper on 360 probably has his shit together. Like a well-oiled machine over there. I'd love to see their protocol/contingency pllans for disaster/tragedies, their immediate tactical plans, list of things to do/people to call, their plans probable scheduled at first by the minute, then half-hour, then hour for a 24/36/48/72 hour block depending on severity of 'incident.' O yeah, they're doing the usual feeding the news in slow bite-size increments in order to maximize viewership depth and longevity.

I just find the whole thing sad. Just happened in Seattle as well. And didn't we have our own little version of this in Canada? And who is to blame? You don't see this in Europe.

DVDs

People ask me what kind of movies I like. And I usually say crime stories. But I'm also a huge sucker for stories of redemption where the hero/heroine rise allmost miraculously from an imposed or self-imposed 'hell' or low to save, heal, or help someone else in trouble. It is the Christ archetype or model. Apropos at Easter.

There was a sale on DVDs and I picked up a couple of crime classics:

The Godfather. Set in its period just after the second world war, the movie follows a mafia family as the old generation passes on its power and position to a newer generation, with the older gen epitomized by Don Corleone (Brando) and the younger gen by the son Micheal C. (Pacino). Long movie, but an excellent drama/crime story. Rated R.

Reservoir Dogs.Sparsely shot but intense story of a diamond robbery gone awry where the criminals are supposed to meet at a warehouse after the heist. Only a few make the meeting and the chaos of the derailed robery follows them to the warehouse, where each criminal suspects and accuses the other of betrayal. Rated R.

The Bad Lieutenent. Story of a corrupt cop (Harvey Keitel) who gambles and debauches himself into a pit of hopelessness, but just when he is at the utter bottom of his own hell, he manages to redeem himself and find some humanity and forgiveness within. It is a heart-wrenching movie that is hard to watch, but it touches me deeply for reasons that are my own. Rated NC-17. (warning: this one is not for everyone)

You can check considerably more eloquent reviews of these crime classics at

Roger Ebert Dot Com

which is one of the best sites on the net for length and depth of reviews and sheer volume of movies reviewed.

Blessed Easter.

Okay, Yet another space for the Sloth

I'm pretty much out of control. How many spaces do I need you might ask. I'm going to try as many as I can, time allowing, then decide where to make my lair.

mph

Impending B-Day | Movie

This week looks to be mildly busy but without much stress, despite the fact that it's my birthday on Sunday. Thirty-nine is not as bad as forty I suppose, but I do notice myself thinking about my life and my past/present/future more and more. I'm happy, in general, with the who, what, where, and why of me.

I don't have plans for this weekend. But maybe I'll scare up some excitement somehow. :) Maybe I'll run the US bordercrossing in the van -- aka the A-Team van -- wearing a turban and waving a plastic AK47 and yelling "jihad on bush!" "jihad on america!" -- that might raise an eyebrow.

I've been looking forward to seeing a movie called The Lookout which is due out on the 30th. I heard it's an above average crime story, and I dig crime stories.

I saw Shooter last week with Mark Wahlberg which is/was your basic revenge tale, a Hollyweird cash-cow plot that has been done and re-done since the late-seventies. Let me give some basics and see if you've heard it: hero comes back from war disillusioned, tries to redeem himself, gets screwed over, snaps, and gets some revenge big time. It's a convention. Like romantic comedies. Like sports movies.

The key to a good convention movie is in it's execution. For instance, First Blood and Firefox were crap (anything with Chuck Norris too), but Man on Fire was well-executed. The story/director must hit partiular notes to pull it off. Tony Scott (although I can't stand his cinematography and editing) is pretty skilled at hitting those notes.

Well, Shooter wasn't bad overall. The end was necessarily predictable, but it had lots of well coordinated and realistic (to a point) action. I didn't buy Wahlberg's character, however, a character called "Swagger" that had too much swager, too much 'look how cool I am' rather than the down-and-out hero or suffering hero. The script didn't develop him enough (it doesn't take much). So I'd give it a B/B-.

DRAMA

These are my movie recommendations, incomplete and in no particular order. They typically are not suitable for children. Assume a R rating for each one.

THE DRAMAS

Short Cuts -- nine interlocking stories set in contemporary Los Angeles. 5/5

Raging Bull -- the story of a boxer, boxing, and the dark side of human excess. 5/5

Bringing Out the Dead. A Scorsese film about an ambulance driver in NYC's slums (Nick Cage) who is falling apart with guilt over not being able to save a little girl and tries to come to terms with the past. 3.5/5

Deer Hunter. Three best friends go to Vietnam and the war changes them. Epic beauty and sadness. (also in War Sect.) 4/5

Oleanna. A Mamet film about a teacher and his student and their struggle for power, control, and good understanding. 3.5/5

Dead Ringers. Cronenberg's strange film about twin doctors, who cannot escape each other. Both brothers are played by Jeremy Irons who does an incredible job playing a dominant and submissive pair. 4/5

Ordinary People. Oscar Winner about the effect of a brother's death on a young man and his parents. Hauntingly beautiful. 5/5

An Angel at My Table. Based on a true story. It's about an Australian girl who strives to become a writer despite a misdiagnosed condition. Excellent story. 4/5

The Lion in Winter. Three sons struggle and manipulate for the medieval Kingdom of their aging father and mother. O'Toole, Hopkins, Hepburn are brilliant. 3.5/5

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. An Albee play. Richard Burton and Taylor depict a middle-aged couple battling each other intermingling of love and hate. Incredible script and acting. 5/5

Lone Star. A complex mystery/drama about a sheriff in a small contemporary town in Texas on the border of Mexico. 4.5/5

Breaking the Waves. A story about a woman whose overpowering love allows her to sacrifice everything for her lover. 4/5

The Shawshank Redemption. A wrongly accused man is sent to jail where he adapts and becomes indespensible to the warden. 4.5/5

The Red Violin -- movie traces a rare violin through history, chronicling its different owners. Drama. 3.5/5

Damage. A politician has a torrid affair with his son's fiance to ruinous result. Great script and acting. 4/5

Awakenings. A catatonic man awakes from years of incapacity and revels in the beauty of life. Robin Williams & DeNiro are excellent. 3.5/5

Barfly. A surprising story about a drunk (Mickey Roark) who lives from drink to drink and writes poetry on the side. 3/5

Mac. This hard-to-find film is about three brothers in construction who get sick of working for others and open their own company. 3.5/5

A Room with a View. Based on the Forrester novel, this simple love story is unforgettable. 3/5

The Lover. This beautifully scripted and shot love story is about the coming of age of a young woman in southeast Asia. Highly erotic. 3.5/5

Three Seasons. An elegantly filmed romance between two Vietnamese in modern Vietnam as well as two other stories. Multiple independent award winner. 4/5

The Unforgiven. Haunting Western about a retired killer that comes out of retirement to kill for money. 4.5/5

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Classic story about family, love, resentment, inheritance, and being true to one's self. 3.5/5

Night of the Iguana. A drinking, lecherous priest takes a Mexican tour of older women to a rundown resort operated by an old flame. There he tries to find redemption. 3.5/5

Slacker. A roving camera moves around a suburban city, following people listening to their daily lives before moving on to another person, a celebration of existence. 4/5

The Loss of Innocence. Intersecting stories about the various ways a person loses their innocence during their journey through life. Beautiful and haunting, yet uneven. 3/5

Female Perversions. Follows a female lawyer and shows the various ways women are pressured by society to conform to a certain undeterminate model. 4/5

Tully. Two brother in a small farming town find out something surpring about their missing mother. 4/5

Glengarry Glen Ross. A star-studded film about telephone salesmen under pressure. 3.5/5

Barton Fink. A theatre writer goes to early Hollywood to write pulp movies only to get writer's block. A strange, surreal film. 4/5

What's Cooking?. Four stories about four families (Black, Jewish, Korean, Hispanic) having thanksgiving dinner. 4/5

Thirteen. This film captures the traumas of being a female teen. 3.5/5

Kids. A poignant drama about urban teens bored and searching for sex, parties, and trouble. 4/5

Adaptation. An original comedy-drama regarding a Hollywood writer adapting a book about orchids. (also Comedies) 4.5/5

Moonstruck. An woman of Italian descent falls in love with her fiancee's unpredictable brother. Romantic and funny. (also Comedies) 5/5

The Conversation. Hackman stars as a surveillance expert that monitors a conversation he was not supposed to and worries about his safety. Coppola captures the paranoid seventies. 4/5

Schindler's List. An opportunistic German citizen seizes a chance to save lives during WW2. 4/5

The Right Stuff -- The New space program looks for the best of the best to send into space. Excellent cast. 4/5

The Hustler. Paul Newman plays a pool player whose pride costs him everything. 3.5/5

12 Angry Men. Henry Fonda and other play a jury arguing a murder trial. 4/5

Moonlight Mile. A pending wedding is interrupted by tragedy leaving the fiancee and in-laws in an awkward space. 4/5

Cinema Paradiso. Foreign, Italian boy grows up going to the movies. 5/5

Changing Lanes. Two men have an accident on a freeway and it changes both their lives. Ben Afleck and Samuel Jackson. 3.5/5

Amadeus. Bio of the famous composer Mozart and his struggles to get his work completed. 4/5

On the Waterfront. The mob and waterfront union join to suppress workers; one stands up against them. 5/5

Monster's Ball. The lives of a black woman and a white man prison guard intersect in the South. Excellent, complex drama. 4/5

Sheltering Sky. A married couple travel to the African desert with a friend who loves the woman (Debra Winger). 3/5

English Patient. A mysterious burn victim during WW2 becomes the center of intersecting stories. Inspired film from an inspired book, romantic and beautiful. 4/5

Shadow of the Vampire. A film about the making of the 1938 Nosferatu vampire classic. Good acting, inventive story. 4/5

Tender Mercies -- drama, famous cowboy singer stops drinking & changes his life, leaving everything behind. 4/5

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. A sane criminal gets himself into the nuthouse and makes mischief amoungst the residents. 5/5

13 Conversations about One Thing. Star-studded cast fronts this film of intersecting stories about happiness and contentment. 3.5/5

The Mission. A missionary converting aboriginies in the South American returns to his military past to defend the indians from conquistadors. 4/5

Dead Poet's Society. Beautifully told story about a new prof that changes lives in a rich prep school. 4/5

Lawrence of Arabia. A British geogrpher leaves his paper to join and lead arab insurgents against imperialistic Turks. 5/5

Leaving Las Vegas. Having lost everything, an executivetravels to Las Vegas to drink himself to death. 3.5/5

9 1/2 Weeks. Erotic flirtations abound in this cult classic. 3/5

Shadowlands. Playing CS Lewis, Anthony Hopkins acts superbly as a man who finds and loses the love of his life to cancer. 3.5/5

Naked. Raw and uncompromising, the film follows a young man who believes in nothing. 3.5/5

Grand Canyon. -A tow-truck driver (Danny Glover) saves a man (Steve Martin) from trouble and they become friends. 4.5/5

Like Water for Chocolate. Spanish. Multi -generational story about a family and how food has marked each critical moment in the family history. 3.5/5

When a Man Loves a Woman. This story centers around a man trying to get his wife sober. 3.5/5

Titus. Shakespeare's vicious revenge play. 5/5

City of Hope. Multiple stories intersect in this film that revolves around a strained father-son relationship. (Sayles writes/directs, see Lonestar above) 4/5


Driving Miss Daisy. 4/5

The Green Mile. 3.5/5

Signs. 3/5

My Left Foot. 4/5

The Rapture. 3/5

The American President. A single father finds love in the white house. 4/5

Primary Colors. A presidential candidate campaigns through personal problems and dilemas which test his character and that of his 'team.' 3.5/5

Born on the Fourth of July. A young man goes to Vietnam and comes home disabled and confused. 4/5

Drugstore Cowboy. Thieves rob drugstores for drugs to party. 4/5

Running on Empty. Child finally finds out why his family never stays anywhere very long. 5/5

The Unbearable Lightness of Being -- drama, a torrid love affair in Czechslovakia leaves characters bitter sweet. 3.5/5

Howard's End. A love story in quiet, hesitant English society. 4/5

Remains of the Day. An English butler becomes fond of new housekeeper. 5/5

Empire of The Sun. A child loses his parents when Japan invades China, and he ends up in a camp struggling to survive. 5/5

Hiroshima, Mon Amour. French, subtitled, a french actress has an affair with a Japanese man, and they discuss each other's lives, beautiful writing. 4.5/5

Zentropa. German, subtitled, an American moves to Germany just after WWII, and gets a job on the trains. Strange movie. 3/5

COMEDY

These are my movie recommendations, incomplete and in no particular order. They typically are not suitable for children. Assume a R rating for each one.


COMEDIES

Zero Effect -- about a PI who is the best in the world, yet cannot help being a paranoid, neurotic recluse. 3.5/5

Barton Fink. An acclaimed dramatist moves to Hollywood to make his fortune writing for the movies but ends up with writer's block when he tries to write. A strange, surreal, but funny film. (see Drama) 4/5

Much Ado About Nothing -- romantic comedy by Shakespeare set in medieval times. 4/5

Being There. A story about a man whose only knowledge about the world has come from television until he has to leave his cocoon. A great cast and superb writing/story have made this film a classic satire. 5/5

The Big Lebowski. Cohen movie about a California bum who is mistaken for someone else and becomes entangled in a kidnapping/murder plot; hilarious story played by a star-studded cast. 5/5

Unstrung Heroes -— story of a young boy growing up with an inventor father and two crazy uncles, the latter at which he stays one summer. Coming-of-age. 3.5/5

Freeway -- satire, a white trash girl with bad temper gets into trouble. 3.5/5

Antz -- an animated movie with astounding graphics and premier actors. 4/5

Tampopo -- subtitled, a Japanese widow wants to open a noodle restaurant. Comedy. 5/5

Life is Beautiful -- subtitled, an Italian Jew in pre-Nazi occupied Italy meets and marries his wife, comedy/drama. 4/5

Shakespeare in Love -- a young Shakespeare tries to write Romeo and Juliet but then is inspired by love. 5/5

The Fisher King -- a radio show host feels condemned for inciting a homicidal psychotic on his show until he meets the man whose family was killed, about imagination and redemption. 4/5

High Fidelity. A unique and very funny story about an elitist record store owner trying to re-acquaint with his top ten ex-girlfriends. 4.5/5

Down and Out in Beverly Hills. A Hollywood bum (Nick Nolte) is saved by a rich family and is invited to live with them in their home. 4/5

Old School. Three thirtysomething buddies open a frat house. 4/5

Briget Jones' Diary. A British comedy about a thirty year old girl trying to juggle various pressures from boss, work, parents, and the lack of a love-life. 3.5/5

Adaptation. An original comedy-drama regarding a Hollywood writer adapting a book about orchids. Excellent acting and script. 4.5/5

Moonstruck. An woman of Italian descent falls in love with her fiancee's unpredictable brother. Romantic and funny. 5/5

Dr. Strangelove. A classic satire about the paranoia and madness during the Cold War. Kubrick and Peter Sellers at their best. (also in War Section) 5/5

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Steve Martin tries to get home on a snowy Thanksgiving holiday. 5/5

Working Girl. A classic comedy from the eighties about a secretarytrying to climb the corporate ladder. 3.5/5

Going South. Hilarious comedy about a horse thief (Jack Nicholson) that is forced to marry or hang for his crimes (Danny Devito, Chistopher Lloyd) 5/5

The Delicatessen. A french film. A black comedy set in an apartment building in a post-apocalyptic Paris. (also Foreign Sect.) 3.5/5

Say Anything. A high-school graduate falls for a quirky classmate and tries to work out what to do with her life. John Cusack is superb. 4/5

Tommy Boy. A boss' son (Farley) goes on sales tour with his wisecracking partner to save the family company. Simply... a classic. 4/5

Caddyshack. A golfcourse caddy must kiss various butts and win a tourney to get scholarship. Chevy Chase, Murray, Dangerfield, and Baxter make this a must see. 5/5

The Player. A satiric look at the Hollywood machine that churns out one crappy genre picture after another as it chews up executives and spits them out. Sharp and witty. 4/5

O Brother Where Art Thou?. Three escaped convicts on the lamb travel across 1930's South toward a buried treasure. Another Cohen masterpiece. 5/5

Young Frankenstein. A hilarious spoof on monster movies by Mel Brooks with Gene Wilder, Gene Hackman, and Peter Boyle. 5/5

Secondhand Lions. Two old bachelors take in a young boy without a father. Duvall and Caine. 3.5/5

A Fish Called Wanda. Thieves and thugs screw up extortion schemes. The monty python cast headline this film with Jamie Curtis and Kevin Cline as a hilarious paranoid assassin. 4/5

Do the Right Thing. Spike Lee's debute film, a series of comic stories set in Harlem. A brilliant independent picture. John Turturro is great as an Italian pizzaria worker in black harlem. 3.5/5

Good Morning Vietnam. Based on a true story. A radio host arrives in Vietnam and jump-starts a dreary military radio station with his comedy. 3.5/5

The Accidental Tourist. A beautiful film about loss and love. A damaged man becomes intrigued with a woman who helps him with his dog. 4.5/5

Amelie. French film. A young woman in Paris becomes intrigued by a 'secret admirer' and tries to discover who he is. A quirky, very original, and very romantic comedy. 4/5

Animal House. A hilarious comedy about a frat house full of malcontents and slackers bent on partying and cheating their way through school. Great movie, and an inspiration to my scholastic life. 4/5

Risky Business. This film shows a young Tom Cruise being left alone at home in the suburbs as his parents travel to Europe for a vacation; he tries and fails to resist the temptations of having the house to himself. 3/5

Ferris Bueller's Day Off. The classic comedy about a highschool student (a charming Matt Broadrick) skipping school with his girlfriend and bestfriend to hang out and have fun. 4/5

My Favourite Movies... Recommended Rentals

These are my movie recommendations, incomplete and in no particular order. Mostly dramas and dramatic comedies. They typically are not suitable for children. Assume a R rating for each one.


THE COMEDIES


THE DRAMAS


CRIME

L.A. Confidential. An elaborately casted and filmed crime thriller about police corruption in Los Angeles in the fifties.

Bound -- a thriller about two women who try to rob a lot of money from organized crime with sex, murder, and smarts.

Jackie Brown -- Tarantino tells a smooth tale about crime, criminals, and money, where a bail-bondsman walks a tightrope with a career criminal and arms dealer (Samuel Jackson).

The Bad Lieutenant -- the descent and suffering of a corrupt, addicted policeman.

The Last Seduction. A beautiful woman with no conscience seeks power and money, using her sex appeal to manipulate men into her con games.

House of Games. David Mamet's complex movie about con-men who scam for a living, told from the perspective of a psychologist who is given a back-door past into the confidence world.

One False Move. A suspenseful crime thriller about three killers driving across southern United States toward a small town where a naive sheriff and two FBI wait for their arrival.

Chinatown. A classic post-noir mystery set in Los Angeles in the fifties. A private investigator (Jack Nicolson) becomes entangled in a murder and money scheme.

A Simple Plan -- three men find millions in a wrecked airplane nobody else knows about.

Silence of the Lambs -- a young FBI woman helps conduct an investigation into a serial killer.

Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer -- an intimate look at the day to day existence of a serial killer.

FOREIGN

Camille Claudel. A french, subtitled movie about a female sculptor in the nineteenth century who was an apprentice to the famous Rodin. Beautifully acted and filmed drama.

Wings of Desire. A German drama about an angel that falls in love with a human woman and wishes he were human in order to love her.

Cyrano de Bergerac. A classic French drama about a robust, poetic soldier with an enormous nose who uses a handsome double to serenade a woman with his poetry.

Ran. A Japanese drama, subtitled, about a medieval shogun whose children betray him for power. Powerful and intense story.

Das Boot -- German, subtitled, a story about German submarine crew in world war two.

Blue -- french, subtitled, about a woman who copes after a tragic car accident. First movie in the trilogy.

White -- french, subtitled, a man rebuilds his life after being robbed. Second in the trilogy.

Red -- french, subtitled, a model returns an injured dog and develops a relationship with its elderly owner. Last of the trilogy.

The Delicatessen -- french, subtitled, a black comedy set in a post apocalyptic world.

ASSORTED

Lord of The Rings Trilogy. JRR Tolkien's wonderous books about the struggle of the good against overpowering evil.

The Exorcist. Horror movie about a child that becomes possessed by a demon and must be exorcised.

The Omen. A horror about a child of a politician that is actually the son of Satan.

Volcano: The Life of Malcolm Lowry. A documentary about the alcoholic writer, narrated in part by Richard Burton.