Owning Mahowny (2003)

Based on a true story.

"You've got a gambling problem, right?"
"I've got a financial problem. A shortfall."

Take one seemingly unassuming man -- Dan Mahowny (Philip Seymour Hoffman) -- with a gambling problem plus access to millions of dollars because of his job as a banker. What do you get? The biggest case of bank fraud perpetrated by a single person in Canadian history.

Also appearing are Minnie Driver as Mahowny's girlfriend; Maury Chaykin as Mahowny's bookie; John Hurt as the astute casino manager.

Directed by Richard Kwietniowski.

Run time: 1 hour, 44 minutes

Rated R for language and some sexuality.

My personal rating: B

Harold (2008)

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"A suggestion: Wear Fruit-of-the-Loom underwear. It hurts less when they give you a wedgie."
Thirteen-year-old Harold (Spencer Breslin) loves his little hometown. He knows everyone and everyone knows him. He's a leader in school. When his Mom (Ally Sheedy) tells Harold and his older sister (Stella Maeve) that she has a great job offer in another town, Harold doesn't want to leave, but he has no choice.

Most of the kids and some of the teachers in the new school simply aren't nice to a 13-year-old nurd with serious male pattern baldness, bunions, dorky clothes, old man attitude. Life is only made a little easier thanks to a school janitor (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) who befriends Harold.

Others in the cast include: Fred Willard as the doctor in the new town; Nikki Blonsky as Rhonda who has a serious crush on Harold; Nicky Katt as a policeman; Chris Parnell as Coach Vanderpool; Suzanne Shepherd as the sex-starved old woman next door; Elizabeth Gillies as Evelyn who Harold persues; Robert Gorrie as his sister's boyfriend.

Written and directed by T. Sean Shannon.

Run time: 1 hour, 45 minutes

Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content, language and teen drinking.

My personal rating: B

What Doesn't Kill You (2008)

Based on a true story.
Choices and Consequences
Two teenage pals -- Paulie (Ethan Hawke) and Brian (Mark Ruffalo) -- grew up together making pocket money as runners for a low level thug in South Boston. Fifteen years later they're tired of getting the small cuts from the jobs Pat Kelly (Brian Goodman, who also co-wrote and directed this film which is based on his own life) and decide to strike out on their own and call their own shots.

They get involved with drug supplier Jay (Brian S. Goodman) and his hyped up brother Sean (Brian Connolly) in dealing cocaine and steroids.

Also appearing are Donnie Wahlberg ans the determined detective tracking Paulie and Brian; Amanda Peet as Brian's long-suffering wife, Stacy; Angela Featherstone as Stacy's best friend Katie;

Run time: 1 hour, 40 minutes

Rated R for language, drug use, some violence and brief sexuality.

My personal rating: B

Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995)

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"Why do you hate me?"

"Because you're ugly."

In this NY Cupcake Land suburban satire, seventh-grader Dawn Wiener (Heather Matarazzo) must endure a bully (Brendan Sexton, Jr.), a nerdy older brother (Matthew Faber), an adorable little sister (Daria Kalinina) who is clearly Dawn's parents' (Angela Pietropinto, Bill Buell) favorite child, her best friend (Dimitri DeFresco) who is also a social reject, and a sexy high schooler (Eric Mabius) who is in her brother's garage band.

Written and directed by Todd Solondz.

Run time: 1 hour, 28 minutes

Rated R for language.

My personal rating: C

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005)

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"Promise me one thing, Pete. If I die over here, carry me back to my family and bury me in my home town. I don't want to be buried on this side among all the f***ing billboards."

When Pete Perkin's (Tommy Lee Jones, who also directed) best friend, Melquiades Estrada (Julio César Cedillo) is found shot to death in the Texas desert near his little goat farm, Pete makes it his business to both find whoever shot Melquiades and to take Melquiades home to his small Mexican village for burial.

What follows is one man's determination to do the right thing and another man's forced and violent journey to redemption.

Also appearing are Barry Pepper as the new, overly aggressive border patrolman Mike Norton; January Jones as Mike's beautiful wife Lou Ann; Dwight Yoakam as Sheriff Belmont; Melissa Leo as a loose woman who befriends Pete, Lou Ann and services the sheriff; Levon Helm as an old blind man on the high mesa; Mel Rodriguez as Captain Gomez of the border patrol; and Vanessa Bauche as Mariana, the herbalist.

Not for the weak stomached!

Run time: 2 hours, 1 minute

Rated R for language, violence and sexuality.

My personal rating: B

Forever Young (1992)

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"It's the dead guy!"
When hot shot test pilot Capt. Danny McCormick (Mel Gibson) doesn't want to witness his beloved girlfriend Helen (Isabel Glasser) in a coma after a horrible accident, he convinces his scientist friend Harry Finley (George Wendt) to using him as a guinea pig for a cryogenics experiment. Danny wants to be frozen for a year so he doesn't have to face Helen's condition. But after being frozen for 53 years, Danny comes back to life and finds himself in 1992.

Danny becomes involved in the lives of nurse Claire Cooper (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her son Nat (Elijah Wood).

Also appearing are Robert Hy Gorman as Nat's friend Felix; Joe Morton as Dr. Cameron, a modern crygenics expert; Nicolas Surovy as Claire's boyfriend; and Veronica Lauren as Nat's little girlfriend Alice.

Directed by Steve Miner.

Run time: 1 hour, 42 minutes

Rated PG for some language and domestic conflict.

My personal rating: B

The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996)

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"This thing that we call a wedding ceremony is really the final scene of the fairy tale. They never tell you what happens after. They never tell you that Cinderella drove the Prince crazy with her obsessive need to clean the castle, cause she missed her day job, right?"
Columbia literature professor Rose Morgan (Barbra Streisand, who also directed) and math professor Gregory Larkin (Jeff Bridges) prove that romance isn't just for the youthful despite her exuberance and his cynacism.

Also appearing are Lauren Bacall (who was nominated for an Oscar for this role) as Rose's mother; Mimi Rogers as Rose's sister Claire; Pierce Brosnan as Rose's over-sexed new brother-in-law; Brenda Vaccaro as Rose's best friend Doris; Elle MacPherson as Gregory's ex-girlfriend; and George Segal as Gregory's hedonistic friend.

The song "I Finally Found Someone," sung by Streisand and Bryan Adams, was nominated for an Oscar.

Run time: 2 hours, 6 minutes

Rated PG-13 for language, sensuality and some mature thematic material.

My personal rating: B

Lantana (2001)

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"You know, you really should have told me that you have a weak heart."
Ten lives intersect, inject, reject and every other kind of -ect in this almost-all-Australian drama.

Police Detective Leon Zat (Anthony LaPaglia) is guilt-ridden about his affair with Jane O'May (Rachael Blake). Meanwhile, Leon's wife Sonja (Kerry Armstrong) tells her psychiatrist, Dr. Valerie Somers (Barbara Hershey) that she's concerned about her marriage and is depressed that the passion and honesty seem to be gone in her relationship with Leon.

In another meanwhile, Valerie and her law dean husband John (Geoffrey Rush) have had their own distance for the past 18 months since the murder of their daughter and especially since Valerie's book about their daughter was recently released. In addition, Valerie is feeling odd about one of her patients, Patrick (Peter Phelps), who is having an affair with a married man.

Still more meanwhiles when Jane's neighbor and friend Paula (Daniella Farinacci) tells Jane that Paula's husband Nik (Vince Colosimo) has talked with Jane's estranged husband Pete (Glenn Robbins) and Pete wants to reunite with Jane. Jane proceeds to come on to the unemployed Nik when Paula is at work.

When Valerie goes missing late one night, puzzle pieces scattered all over begin to come together.

Leah Purcell appears as Leon's police partner Claudia Wiss who has covered his affair from Sonja and who is also smitten with a mystery man she sees regularly at the diner.

The first film to win all of the top six categories of the Australian Film Institute (AFI) awards: best picture, best director, best actress, best actor, best supporting actress, best supporting actor. It also won for best adapted screenplay.

Adapted from Andrew Bovell's play Speaking in Tongues. Directed by Ray Lawrence.

Run time: 2 hours, 1 minute

Rated R for language and sexuality.

My personal rating: B

Charlie Bartlett (2007)

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"Charlie, there are more important things than popularity."
"Like what? Cause I'm seventeen. And right now, popularity's pretty damn important."
"Like what you do with that popularity."
Charlie Bartlett (Anton Yelchin) has a desperate need to be popular. His antics toward this goal have caused him to be expelled from numerous prep boarding schools. Now at home with his mother (Hope Davis) in their mansion, he is sent off to public school for the first time in his life.

At first, the preppy boy is the subject of bullying by the high school punks, lead by Murphey Bivens (Tyler Hilton). Thanks to his mother's psychiatrist (Stephen Young), who is more than willing to write prescriptions for anything Charlie fakes, Charlie finds a way to become quite popular -- much to the dismay of Principal Nathan Gardner (Robert Downey, Jr.).

Also appearing is Kat Dennings as Susan Gardner, Charlie's love interest who happens to be the principal's daughter.

Directed by Jon Poll.

Run time: 1 hour, 37 minutes

Rated R for language, drug content and brief nudity.

My personal rating: C+

Silent Fall (1994)

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"Abuse victims make the best actors."
When a married couple is found brutally stabbed to death in the bedroom of their posh Maryland home, the only witnesses are their older teenage daughter Silvie Warden (Liv Tyler) who apparently was also attacked but remembers nothing and their young autistic son Tim (Ben Faulkner) who can't communicate any information worth using in solving the case.

Sheriff Mitch Rivers (J.T. Walsh) calls his old friend Jake Ranier (Richard Dreyfuss), a former child psychiatrist, in on the case in hopes of breaking the barrier surrounding the young boy.

Also appearing are Linda Hamilton as Jake's wife; John Lithgow as a child psychologist who wants to use drugs to get the boy to reveal information; and Zahn McClarnon as Deputy Bear.

Directed by Bruce Beresford.

Run time: 1 hour, 41 minutes

Rated R.

My personal rating: B-

Husbands and Wives (1992)

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"God never plays dice with the universe"
"No, he just plays hide-and-seek."
When Gabe (Woody Allen, who also wrote and directed) and his wife Judy (Mia Farrow) find out their best friends, Jack (Sydney Pollack) and Sally (Judy Davis) are breaking up, it causes Gabe and Judy more distress than it appears to cause Jack and Sally. It also makes Gabe and Judy to reevaluate their own marriage.

Also appearing are Timothy Jerome as a man Sally tries to date; Lysette Anthony as Jack's new girlfriend Sam; Juliette Lewis as Rain, one of Gabe's students with whom he is growing quite smitten; Liam Neeson as Michael who become's Sally's first serious boyfriend; Ron Rifkin as Rain's former therapist/ex-boyfriend; Blythe Danner and Brian McConnachie as Rain's parents; Benno Schmidt as Judy's ex-husband.

Run time: 1 hour, 48 minutes

Rated R for language and a scene of sexuality.

My personal rating: B

Frozen River (2008)

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Desperation
Hardbitten Rae Eddy (Melissa Leo) and her two sons, 15-year-ild TJ (Charlie McDermott) and five-year-old Ricky (James Reilly) have been abandoned yet again by her shiftless, addict, gambling husband. With the final payment to owe on her dream double-wide and barely able to support her boys, Rae gets involved with a cynical young Mohawk woman, Lila Littlejohn (Misty Upham), smuggling Chinese and Pakistani illegals across the frozen St. Lawrence river from Quebec into upstate New York. Rae's greed leads to a life or death cat and mouse game.

Michael O'Keefe plays the trooper on the hunt.

Written and directed by newcomer Courtney Hunt. Melissa Leo was nominated for an Oscar for best actress and Courtney Hunt received the nomination for best screenplay. The film garnered numerous other prestigious nominations and wins around the world.

Rated R for some language.

Run time: 1 hour, 37 minutes

My personal rating: B+

Copying Beethoven (2006)

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"God whispers into the ears of some men, but he shouts into mine!"
In this fictionalization of Ludwig von Beethoven's last year of life, a young woman -- Anna Holtz (Diane Kruger) -- is sent to serve as a copyist for Beethoven (Ed Harris). At great sacrifice by her father, Anna was sent to study composing at the conservatory in Vienna. She lives in a convent where her aunt is a nun and she is engaged to a promising architect, Martin Bauer (Matthew Goode).

Beethoven is not at all happy about a woman copyist but in time, the brilliant, deaf madman becomes totally dependent on Anna.

Also appearing are Phyllidia Law as the Mother Superior of the convent and Joe Anderson as Beethoven's nephew Karl who uses Ludwig to no end.

Though this film borrows heavily from Amadeus in some scenes and Harris' intensity as Beethoven shows through, it didn't leave me as charged as Amadeus did. But I must say, the performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is masterful.

Directed by Agnieszka Holland.

Run time: 1 hour, 44 minutes

Rated PG-13 for some sexual elements.

My personal rating: B-

Crossroads (1986)

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"The blues ain't nothin' but a good man feelin' bad, thinkin' 'bout the woman he once was with."
Eugene "Lightning Boy" Martone (Ralph Macchio) is a talented young guitar player who wants to learn the ways of authentic blues. When he meets blues legend Willie "Blind Dog" Brown (Joe Seneca) he's off on a journey to the Mississippi Delta with the promise of learning it all. Little does Eugene know that Brown is actually trying to buy his way out of a deal he made the devil decades early by offering up young Eugene in his place.

Also appearing are Jami Gertz, Joe Morton, Robert Judd, and Harry Carey Jr.

The strength of the film is some pretty good blues slide guitar but otherwise it's just sort of a mediocre sweet story.

Directed by Walter Hill.

Run time: 1 hour, 36 minutes

Rated R.

My personal rating: C+

Quills (2000)

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"So many authors are denied the gratification of a concrete response to their work. I am blessed."
Imprisoned for many years for his pornographic and masochistic writings, the Marquis de Sade (Geoffrey Rush) eventually found himself in the insane asylum Chareton which was run by a benevolent priest, the Abbé du Coulmier (Joaquin Phoenix). He continued writing his tomes in his well-appointed cell and his manuscripts were secreted out to his publisher by the young and beautiful laundress Madeleine LeClerq (Kate Winslet).

When the emperor Napoleon (Ron Cook) discovers that de Sade's work continues to sell, he dispatches Dr. Royer-Collard (Michael Caine) to assess the situation and put and end to the writings. While the Abbé refuses to allow Royer-Collard to employ barbaric torture to "tame" de Sade, de Sade is gradually deprived of his quills, ink and paper and then the opulent decor of his cell and finally left naked in his barren cell. But he continues to find ways to write and tell his stories.

Also in the cast are Amelia Warner as Simone, the convent-raised orphan who becomes Royer-Collard's child bride; Stephen Moyer as Prioux, a young architect sent by Napoleon to renovate the Royer-Collard chateau at Chareton; Billie Whitelaw as Madeleine's mother who was blinded by the lye used to wash the asylum's linens; Jane Menelaus as de Sade's long-suffering wife Renee Pelagie; Stephen Marcus as the violent inmate Bouchon; and Elizabeth Berrington as the chambermaid Charlotte who betrays Madeleine.

While factually inaccurate, de Sade did spend many years imprisoned and at the insane asylum of Chareton. Liberties were taken regarding many incidents in de Sade's life. This is a profound film with graphic violence and sexuality. Some may find it extremely vulgar.

Directed by Philip Kaufman.

Run time: 2 hours, 4 minutes

Rated R for strong sexual content including dialogue, violence and language.

My personal rating: B+

A History of Violence (2005)

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"In this family, we do not solve problems by hitting people!"
"No, in this family, we shoot them!"
The Stalls are an upstanding small town Indiana couple. Tom (Viggo Mortenson) and his wife Edie (Maria Bello) run the town's diner. Thier son Jack (Ashton Holmes) is a gentle spirited teenager who is bullied at school. Little Sarah (Heidi Hayes) is afraid of monsters.

When a couple of murderous thugs arrive at the diner and threaten Tom with guns, Tom shoots them both dead and becomes a hero.

Soon Tom and Edie are been stalked and threated by mobster Carl Fogarty (Ed Harris) and his goons Frank Mulligan (Bill McDonald) and Charlie Roarke (Aidan Devine). Fogarty has seen Tom's hero picture in the newspaper and pegs him as Joey Cusack, brother of Philadelphia mobster Richie Cusack (William Hurt). From there the true tale unfolds.

Also appearing are Peter MacNeill as Sheriff Sam Carney.

Direced by David Cronenberg.

Run time: 1 hour, 36 minutes

Rated R for strong brutal violence, graphic sexuality, nudity, language and some drug use.

My personal rating: B+

The Whole Wild World (1996)

."To make life worth living a man or a woman has to have a great love or a great cause. I have neither."
When schoolteacher and aspiring writer Novalyne Price (Renee Zellweger) arrives in Cross Plains, Texas, in 1933 to begin the school term, she meets Robert Howard (Vincent D'Onofrio), an odd loner with a temper and a successful pulp magazine writer known for his Conan the Barbarian series. She's seeking advice but their friendship soon blossoms into more and Novalyne must learn how to deal with Robert's attitude and stories that offend her sensibilities.

Others in the cast include Ann Wedgeworth and Harve Presnell as Robert's sickly mother and doctor father; and Libby Villari as Novalyne's mother. Also appearing is Elizabeth D'Onofrio (Vincent's sister).

Based on the memoir of Novalyne Price Ellis. Directed by Dan Ireland.

Run time: 1 hour, 46 minutes

Rated PG for a substantial amount of mild language and mature thematic elements.

My personal rating: B+

Rest in Peace - April 2009

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Apr-25-2009
Beatrice "Bea" Arthur, 86, American Actress (films Mame, Lovers and Other Strangers; tv series Maude, Golden Girls), cancer.

Apr-22-2009
Ken Annakin, 94, British Academy Award-nominated firm director (The Longest Day, Battle of the Bulge), complications from heart attack and stroke.
Jack Cardiff, 94, British cinematographer (Black Narcissus, The African Queen), natural causes.

Apr-12-2009
Marilyn Chambers, 56, American pornographic actress (Behind the Green Door) and politician.

Apr-04-2009
Jody McCrea, 74, American actor (Naked Gun, All Hands on Deck, numerous beach bikini flicks), eldest son of Joel McCrea and Frances Dee.

Apr-02-2009
Lou Perryman, 67, American actor (The Blues Brothers, Poltergeist, Boys Don't Cry), stabbed.

My April 2009 Viewings

Recommended DVDs are marked with * All titles link to reviews.

Say Anything 04/30/09 (B-)
* Hearts in Atlantis 04/29/09 (B+)
* Homer & Eddie 04/28/09 (B)
* Frost/Nixon 04/27/09 (A)
* Pollock 04/26/09 (B+)
* Hot Shots! 04/25/09 (B)
* In Country 04/24/09 (B)
Sunset 04/23/09 (B-)
* The Wrestler 04/22/09 (A-)
Pineapple Express 04/21/09 (B-)
* Trial By Jury 04/20/09 (B)
All or Nothing 04/19/09 (B-)
* The Player 04/18/09 (B)
Far From Heaven 04/17/09 (C+)
* At Close Range 04/16/09 (B)
* Cadillac Records 04/15/09 (B+)
* The Deep End 04/14/09 (B)
* Appaloosa 04/13/09 (A-)
* The Secret Life of Words 04/12/09 (B+)
* Imaginary Crimes 04/11/09 (B)
* Instinct 04/10/09 (B+)
* Doubt 04/9/09 (B+)
* Nights in Rodanthe 04/8/09 (B)
* RocknRolla 04/7/09 (B)
* The Commitments 04/6/09 (B)
* The Red Violin 04/5/09 (A-)
* Seven Pounds 04/4/09 (B)
* In the Electric Mist 04/3/09 (B)
* American History X 04/02/09 (B+)
* Slumdog Millionaire 04/01/09 (B)

Say Anything (1989)

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"I am looking for a dare to be great situation."
Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack), underachiever, kickboxer, and recent high school graduate, is smitten with the beautiful valedictorian Diane Court (Ione Skye) but Diane has spent her entire life focused on academics with the goal of winning a fellowship in England. She's neglected the social side of her life. But Lloyd is determined to change that and soon Diane is smitten with Lloyd, too. Their love grows but is complicated by the usual teenage angst and Diane's possessive father (John Mahoney).

Others in the cast include Lili Taylor, Chynna Phillips, Jason Gould, and Jeremy Piven as some of Lloyd's buddies; Richard Portnow and Philip Baker Hall as IRS agents; and Joan Cusack as Lloyd's older sister. Also appearing are Bebe Neuwirth and Eric Stoltz.

Set in Seattle. Includes one of my fav songs, "In Your Eyes," written and performed by Peter Gabriel.

Written and directed by Cameron Crowe.

Run time: 1 hour, 40 minutes

Rated PG-13.

My personal rating: B-

Hearts in Atlantis (2001)

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"You're a strange man."
"Shhh. Tell no one."
When Bobby Garfield (David Morse) learns of the death of his old school chum Sully, he returns to his hometown for the funeral and finds that his other best friend, Carol, had also passed away. When Bobby drives by his childhood home, he thinks of the fun times he'd had with young Carol (Mika Boorem) and Sully (Will Rothhaar). He also pondered the curious boarder, Ted Brautigan (Anthony Hopkins) who his distant, cold, widowed mother (Hope Davis) had taken in as a boarder.

The young Bobby (Anton Yelchin) spent a lot of time with the boarder, earning money by reading to the old man who was losing his sight. But over time, he realizes that the boarder is deeply mysterious, is fearful of being found by "the low men," sometimes falls into trances, and appears to know things that otherwise would be unknown to anyone else.

Others in the cast include Alan Tudyk, Adam LeFevre, Celia Weston, Deirdre O'Connell.

From a story by Stephen King and directed by Scott Hicks.

Run time: 1 hour, 41 minutes

Rated PG-13 for some violence and thematic elements.

My personal rating: B+

Homer & Eddie (1989)

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The Raggedy People
Two unfortunate souls are thrown together in what becomes a love story of sorts when Homer (Jim Belushi), a mentally retarded man, sets out hitchhiking from his home in Arizona to Oregon to see his ill father and meets Eddie (Whoopi Goldberg), a mentally ill woman who escaped from an institution, when she gives him a ride.

Others appearing in small roles include Anne Ramsey, Karen Black, John Waters, and Vincent Schiavelli.

Sort of sappy by this unusual buddy road trip film is sweet and touching.

Directed by Andrei Konchalovsky.

Run time: 1 hour, 40 minutes

Rated R.

My personal rating: B

Frost/Nixon (2008)

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"I'm saying that when the President does it, that means it's not illegal."
Three years after resigning the presidency, Richard Nixon (Frank Langella) agreed to a four-part interview by talk show host David Frost (Michael Sheen).

Also appearing are Sam Rockwell and Oliver Platt as Frost's researchers James Reston, Jr. and Bob Selnick; Kevin Bacon as Nixon's aide Jack Brennan; Rebecca Hall as Frost's girlfriend Caroline Cushing; Toby Jones as Nixon's literary agent Swifty Lazar; Andy Midler as Frank Gannon and Kate Jennings Grant as Diane Sawyer who were working with Nixon on his memoir; Patty McCormack as Pat Nixon, Clint Howard and Rance Howard also appear.

Directed by Ron Howard.

Run time: 8 hours, 8 minutes

Rated R for language.

My personal rating: A

Pollock (2000)

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"If people would just look at the paintings, I don't think they would have any trouble enjoying them. It's like looking at a bed of flowers, you don't tear your hair out over what it means."
Ed Harris (who also directed) portrays the madman Jackson Pollock -- neurotic, alcoholic, womanizing, misogynistic, and brilliant abstract artist -- from the time he first began making an impression on the world in the early 1940s until his tragic death in 1956.

Marcia Gay Harden plays Pollock's wife Lee Krasner who was also an abstract artist. Others in the cast include Val Kilmer as artist Willem DeKooning; Sada Thompson as Pollock's mother; Robert Knott and David Leary as Pollock's brothers Sande and Charles; John Heard as architect Tony Smith; Jeffrey Tambor as art critic Clem Greenberg; and the art patrons Bud Cort as Howard Putzel and Amy Madigan as Peggy Guggenheim; Jennifer Connelly as his lover Ruth Kligman. Ed Harris' own father, Bob Harris, has a small role as a veterinarian.

With a good Tom Waits song over the closing credits.

Run time: 2 hours, 2 minutes

Rated R for language and brief sexuality.

My personal rating: B+

Hot Shots! (1991)

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"Your ego's writing checks your body can't cash."
Top gun fighter pilot Topper Harley (Charlie Sheen) dropped out when an incident made him doubt his ability. But when he's asked to return to duty for a special assignment -- Sleepy Weasel -- to destroy Saddam Hussein's nuclear plants, he joins the team aboard the USS Essess to do his duty.

An aerospace company is trying to sabotage the effort and cause the destruction of the fighter planes so they can win the contract for the new planes. But that's small potatoes to Harley who develops a huge rivalry with another top gun, Kent Gregory (Cary Elwes) both in the air and about a woman.

Also appearing are Valeria Golino as the ship's psychologist; Lloyd Bridges as the Admiral; Jon Cryer, William O'Leary. and Kristy Swanson as a crew members; Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as the aeronautics executive; Bill Irwin as Harley's wacked out father; and Heidi Swedberg as a pilot's wife.

A parody of Top Gun with nods to Airplane!, Dances with Wolves, Superman, Gone With the Wind, and others.

Directed by Jim Abrahams.

Run time: 1 hour, 24 minutes

Rated PG-13.

My personal rating: B

In Country (1989)

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"...a hole in my heart."
Teenager Samantha Hughes (Emily Lloyd) never knew her father. She was born after he'd died in Vietnam. Her mother (Joan Allen) has remarried and lives in Lexington, Kentucky, while Samantha's Uncle Emmett (Bruce Willis) raised Samantha in their small Kentucky hometown.

When Samantha comes across photos of her father, love letters he'd written to her mother, his dog tags and ribbons, she becomes obsessed with finding out more about him. She questions her uncle about the war since Emmett had also served in Vietnam. She questions three of her uncle's friends (John Terry, Stephen Tobolowsky, Jim Beaver) who were also war vets but she gets little information. She's also trying to find help for Emmett as he's a loose cannon, has symptoms of Agent Orange toxicity, and flashbacks to the war.

Others in the cast include Kevin Anderson as Samantha's boyfriend; Heidi Swedberg as Samantha's best friend; Peggy Rae and Richard Hamilton as her grandparents; Judith Ivey as a women who is smitten with Emmett; and Patricia Richardson as a vet's wife.

From a novel by Bobbie Ann Mason. Directed by Norman Jewison.

Run time: 2 hours

Rated R.

My personal rating: B

Sunset (1988)

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"It's all true, give or take a lie or two."
When film producer Alfie Alpern (Malcolm McDowell) sets about to make a western in 1927, he hires Tom Mix (Bruce Willis) to play Wyatt Earp and actually brings Earp (James Garner) on set as the consultant.

When the proprietess of the hot bordello The Candy Store is murdered, Mix and Earp team up to solve the mystery.

Also in the cast are Mariel Hemingway as the daughter of the murdered woman; Kathleen Quinlan as Tom Mix's girlfriend; Jennifer Edwards as Alfie's sister; Patricia Hodge as Alfie's wife; Dermot Mulroney as Alfie's stepson; Richard Bradford and M. Emmet Walsh as cops.

Big Henry Mancini music.

Okay, so it got a couple of Razzie nominations and even won one (Worst Director), it's still a fun romp on a rainy day.

Screenplay and directed by Blake Edwards.

Run time: 1 hour, 47 minutes

Rated R.

My personal rating: B-

The Wrestler (2008)

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"And now, I'm an old broken down piece of meat... and I'm alone. And I deserve to be alone. I just don't want you to hate me."
Twenty years before, Randy "The Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke) was one of the biggest headliners on the pro wrestling circuit. He appeared in huge venues and had mobs of loyal fans. But with age, Randy can barely get a match in VFW and community center rings. He's taken to working in a grocery store, but he still dreams of one last match with his nemesis, the Ayatollah (Ernest Miller) before he retires.

But real life and a heart attack get in the way of his dream. In the process, he works hard to fix and have a real relationship with his estranged daughter Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood) and solidify the relationship with Cassidy (Marisa Tomei), a stripper with a heart of gold who wants to move on to a conventional life.

Directed by Darren Aronofsky.

Run time: 1 hour, 51 minutes

Rated R for violence, sexuality/nudity, language and some drug use.

My personal rating: A-

Pineapple Express (2008)

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"In case you haven't noticed - which you haven't, 'cause from what I can tell, you don't notice anything ever - we are not very functional when we're high."
A couple of stoners -- process server Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) and his dealer Saul Silver (James Franco) -- are on the run from Ted (Gary Cole), the supplier of the powerful weed Pineapple Express, who is determined to annhilate them because Dale saw Ted murder a man. Ted sends his two goons (Kevin Corrigan, Craig Robinson) in search of the pair.

Also appearing are Rosie Perez as a corrupt cop; Amber Heard as Dale's underage girlfriend Angie; Ed Begley Jr. and Nora Dunn as Angie's parents; Danny McBride as Red the snitch; Cleo King as the high school's police liaison officer; and Bill Hader in the opening as a 1930s soidier who is used by the government for secret pot smoking studies.

Twenty years ago, Cheech and Chong would have starred in this film. Overall, pretty dumb -- but also some wickedly funny bits.

Screeplay by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, and based on a story by the two of them plus Judd Apatow. Directed by David Gordon Green.

Run time: 1 hour, 51 minutes

Rated R for pervasive language, drug use, sexual references and violence.
My personal rating: B-

Trial By Jury (1996)

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"You live your life, believing in things like justice and the law. Then someone grabs you off the street in broad daylight. Walks right past the police and tells you that he'll reach out from beyond the grave and kill your son. You don't think about right or wrong, you only think about survival. You do what you have to do."
NYC shop owner and single mother Valerie Alston (Joanne Whalley) is selected to serve on the jury to determine the guilt or innocence of mobster Rusty Pirone (Armand Assante) who is charged with conspiracy to kill and the actual murder of 11 people.

The mob has already done away with two key witnesses and just as the trial begins they've murdered key witness Limpy DeMarco (John Capodice) along with the four cops guarding him. Valerie is briefly abducted by Tommy Vesey (William Hurt), a former cop turned mob good fella, who informs her that unless she votes for Pirone's innocence Valerie's son Robbie (Bryan Shilowich) will be murdered, and she'll be killed, too.

Others in the cast include Gabriel Byrne as the Federal prosecutor Daniel Graham; Kathleen Quinlan as the goons' mol Wanda; Margaret Whitton as Jane, the juror who befriends Valerie; Richard Portnow as Defense Attorney Leo Greco; William R. Moses as the flirtatious juror Paul; Joe Santos as the uncle of the defendent and witness Johnny Verona; Stuart Whitman as Valerie's Father; Robert Breuler as the dyspeptic judge.

Written and directed by Heywood Gould.

Run time: 1 hour, 47 minutes

Rated R.

My personal rating: B

All or Nothing (2002)

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"Funny, isn't it? Love. If you're not together, you're alone."
Phil (Timothy Spall) and Penny's (Lesley Manville) marriage has turned the way many long term marriages go. They live together, along with their two post-school aged children Rachel (Alison Garland) and Rory (James Corden) in an apartment project in London. It appears as though they are all together out of sheer habit rather than an particular bond.

Phil is a cabbie who rather not work hard but he's a gentle soul and morbidly philosophical. Penny works hard as a checker at a big grocery store and then comes home to cook and clean and tend the house. Rachel, a large and plain young woman, works as a housekeeper at a nursing home where she is loved by the residents and pursued by a tragic coworker who is at least her father's age. She seems to have very little to do with her family despite living in the same small space with them. Rory is an obese young man with anger issues and a penchant for aggression and other anti-social behavior.

When a major health concern strikes the family, will it be what they need to pull together as family who really cares about each other and themselves?

Written and directed by Mike Leigh.

Run time: 2 hours, 8 minutes

Rated R for pervasive language and some sexuality.

My personal rating: B-

The Player (1992)

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"The next time you want to badmouth me, do it to my face."
Movie studio exec Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) is being blackmailed by an anonymous scriptwriter who feels Mill has snubbed him. Mill suspects the blackmailer might be David Kahane (Vincent D'Onofrio).

Mill's job is on tenuous ground anyhow, as most jobs in Hollywood are, but he needs to not make his blackmail threat public and try to reason with the blackmailer. But when a death occurs, Mill is drawn further into a web which he needs to escape from.

Others appearing include Greta Scacchi as Kahane's girlfriend; Peter Gallagher as Larry Levy, man who may be getting Mill's job; Whoopi Goldberg and Lyle Lovett as detectives; plus Fred Ward, Dean Stockwell, Richard E, Grant, Sydney Pollack, Dina Merrill, and a cast of nearly thousands.

Very minor cameos by the likes of Angelica Huston, John Cusack, Harry Belafonte, Burt Reynolds, Patrick Swayze, Bruce Willis, Althea Gibson, Ray Walson, Robert Wagner, Lily Tomlin, Joan Tewkesbury, Rod Steiger, Susan Sarandon, Elliot Gould, Jill St. John, Mimi Rogers, Nick Nolte, Martin Mull, Malcolm McDowell, Marlee Matlin, Jack Lemmon, Sally Kirkland, Sally Kellerman, Kathy Ireland, Joel Grey, David Alan Grier, Buck Henry, Jeff Goldblum, Scott Glenn, Teri Garr, Dennis Frantz, Louise Fletcher, Felicia Farr, Peter Falk, Paul Dooley, Brad Davis, Cathy Lee Crosby, James Colburn, Cher, Robert Carradine, Rene Auberjonois, Richard Anderson, Steve Allen, Jayne Meadows, and many more.

Written and directed by Robert Altman.

Run time: 2 hours, 3 minutes

Rated R for language and some sensuality.

My personal rating: B

Far From Heaven (2002)

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"Oh, Raymond, Mrs. Whitaker sounds so formal! Won't you please... ask me to dance?
Cathy (Julianne Moore) and Frank Whitaker (Dennis Quaid) seem to be the ideal prosperous couple in this 1950s Hartford community. He's a successful businessman and she's a social leader. When Cathy discovers her husband is gay, she stands by him hoping that he will be cured by visiting a psychiatrist.

In the midst of this, Cathy has become quite smitten with her new gardener, Raymond Deagan (Dennis Haysbert), a handsome and tender man who is African-American. When Frank confronts Cathy with the gossip he's heard around town, he is enraged about how damaging this could be to his career.

Also appearing are Patricia Clarkson as Cathy's supposedly best friend Eleanor; Celia Weston as the leading town gossip Mona Lauder; Viola Davis as the Whitaker's housekeeper; James Rebhorn as the psychiatrist; Jordan Puryear as Sarah, Raymond's young daughter.

While I appreciated the exquisite attention to detail, the authenticity of costumes and settings, a color pallet that made me feel the 1950s, I just didn't care enough about the nature of either Cathy or Frank.

Written and directed by Todd Haynes.

Run time: 1 hour, 48 minutes

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic elements, sexual content, brief violence and language.

My personal rating: C+

At Close Range (1986)

Based on a true story

"Most people who drive through here see farms. Houses, and fields, and shit. I see money, I see things, everything got my name writ' on it."

Brad Whitehead, Sr. (Christopher Walken) and his brothers and pals (Tracey Walter, R.D. Call, David Strathairn, J.C. Quinn) are big time thugs in the Philadelphia area in the 1970s, His nearly adult estranged sons Brad (Sean Penn) and Tommy (Chris Penn) and their pals (Kiefer Sutherland, Stephen Geoffreys, Crispin Glover) are small time hoods who want to be in the big time gang.

Brad Jr. eventually learns that blood is not always thicker than water.

Also in the cast are Millie Perkins as the boys' mother, Eileen Ryan (who is the Penn brothers' real mother) plays their Grandmother; Mary Stuart Masterson is Brad Jr.'s girlfriend. Candy Clark is Brad Sr.'s girlfriend.

Sean Penn's amazing talent shone brightly in this, one of his earliest films.

Directed by James Foley.

Run time: 1 hour, 51 minutes

Rated R.

My personal rating: B

Cadillac Records (2008)

Based on a true story

"Now, the first time a gal took off her underwear and threw 'em on stage was on account of guys singin' the blues. Now, when the white girls started doin' it, they called that rock and roll."
Leonard Chess (Adrien Brody), a white boy from Chicago, promised his girlfriend's father that when he married, his wife was going to drive a Cadillac. McKinley "Muddy Waters" Morganfield (Jeffrey Wright), was a sharecropper from Mississippi when Alan Lomax (Tony Bentley) came through making recordings of folk music for the Library of Congress. The year was 1941 and the seeds of rock and roll were planted.

Inspired by hearing himself sing and play guitar on Lomax's recording, Muddy hiked to Chicago and began playing on street corners. Later Chess was approached by a "race" records producer outside Chess' blues club in southside Chicago. She was looking for talent and asked Chess to call her if he heard anything. Muddy met Little Walter (Columbus Short), a 17-year-old harp player extraordinaire, and they formed a perfect duo.By 1947, they added Jimmy Rogers (Kevin Mambo) to become The All-Star Trio and were playing in Chess' Macamba Club.

When Chess asks Muddy to break up the trio so Muddy can record solo, they head to Mississippi in Chess' Caddy to peddle the record to radio deejays, including one (Vincent D'Onofrio) who promotes the heck out of Muddy's new records helping Muddy earn his first Cadillac from Chess.

After the Macamba Club mysteriously burns down, Chess uses the insurance money to build Chess Record Studios and produce Cadillac Record. He reunites Muddy with Little Walter and Jimmy Rogers and makes them all big sensations. Willie Dixon (Cedric the Entertainer) enters the picture with songs he's written specificially for Muddy to sing in the early 1950s, Along comes Howlin' Wolf (Eamonn Walker) to challenge Muddy's place in Chess' studio.

And then comes country singer Chuck Berry (Mos Def) and his "Maybelline." Muddy tries to discourage Chess from recording Berry because he isn't playing the blues but Chess is committed and knows Berry's music is "something else." When Chess and Berry take their recording to Alan Freed (Eric Bogosian), freed declares it to be "rock and roll -- and it's too fun for anyone to sit out on, white or colored" and the airwaves are integrated. "And all it took was one man duck-walking across the stage to bring us together."

With the popularity of television and American Bandstand, rock 'n roll rocked the nation. Chess was hunting for a woman performer and meets up with the outspoken Miss Etta James (Beyonce Knowles). Chess knows how to change Etta's internal anger into great passion in her recordings.

The rest is history -- history that includes Leonard Chess' stable's influence on the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton and many others while Chess was trying to update his own stable of performers to the up and coming style of rock 'n roll.

Also appearing are Emmanuelle Chriqui as Chess' wife Revetta, Gabrielle Union as Muddy's wife Geneva.

Written and directed by Darnell Martin.

Run time: 1 hours, 49 minutes

Rated R for pervasive language and some sexuality.

My personal rating: B+

The Deep End (2001)

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"This is only a business opportunity. That's all."
Margaret Hall (Tilda Swinton) is worried about her teenaged son Beau (Jonathan Tucker). When she finds out that Beau is hanging out with a gay drug dealer Darby Reese (Josh Lucas) she drives to Reno to bribe the dealer to stay away from Beau. Later that night, Darby visits the Hall home and rouses Beau to come out and talk. The two go to the Hall's boathouse where they have a fight.

The next morning whilst on a job, Margaret discovers Darby's body along the shore and, suspecting Beau murdered him, she disposes of the body. Alek Spera (Goran Visnjic) visits Margaret with a damning video and blackmails her into giving him $50K to avoid having the video turned over to the Tahoe City police.

Also appearing are Peter Donat as Margaret's father-in-law who lives with them; Tamara Hope and Jordon Dorrance as Margaret's other children;

Based on the novel The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding. Screenplay and directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel.

Run time: 1 hour, 41 minutes

Rated R for some violence and language, and for a strong sex scene.

My personal rating: B

Appaloosa (2008)

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"You hired him to be Virgil Cole."
Peacemakers Virgil Cole (Ed Harris) and Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen) have been riding the Wild West together for a dozen years doling out justice to the bad guys. They're friends, They've got each others back.

They're called to the tiny town of Appaloosa after Marshall Jack Bell (Bobby Jauregui) and his two deputies disappear while making a call on the notorious rancher Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons). Bragg and his men have been riding rough shot over the area for some time and Appoloosa's councilmen (James Gammon, Timothy Spall, Tom Bower) hire the two itinerent lawmen to keep the town safe. The councilmen have to agree that it's Cole's way or no way.

When one of Bragg's men, the young Joe Whitfield (Gabriel Marantz) defects and comes to town to tell Cole and Hitch that Bragg himself had murdered the marshall and two deputies, Cole and Hitch set out to take Bragg into custody until the circuit judge comes in.

By this time, a beguiling and flirtatious widow, Allie French (Renee Zellweger), arrives in town and Cole is smitten. It isn't long before they're living together, building a house in town, and Cole is preparing to settle down.

The circuit judge (Bob Harris, who is Ed Harris' real father) arrives and after a brief trial, orders Bragg to the prison some distance away. Cole and Hitch take the train with the prisoner and the law officers who escort the judge to deposit Bragg at the prison, but Bragg's men have hired the Shelton brothers -- Ring (Lance Henriksen) and Mackie (Adam Nelson) -- a pair of gunslingers-for-hire to set Bragg free. The Sheltons kidnap Allie and follow the train, finally persuading Cole to release Bragg.

Cole and Hitch track the fugitives who still have Allie. A skirmish with Indians happens and eventually all end back in Appaloosa for a dramatic shoot out.

Appaloosa now ranks right up there with High Noon, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Shane as my top favorite westerns.

Ed Harris not only stars in this film, he co-wrote the script, directed, and produced the film, plus he wrote and sings the second song that plays during the closing credits -- a funky song worth the listen. It's right after a great song by Tom Petty and performed by Mudcrutch. Overall, the music throughout the film was terrific and so was the cinematography.

Run time: 1 hour, 54 minutes

Rated R for some violence and language.

My personal rating: A-

The Secret Life of Words (2005)

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Before the holocaust, Adolf Hitler called all of his collaborators together and in order to convince them that he could get away with his plan he asked them who remembers the extermination of the Armenians? That's what he said. Thirty years later nobody remembered the million Armenians exterminated in the cruelest possible way.

Bosnian refugee Hanna Amitron (Sarah Polley), a young hearing impaired woman who is emotionally fragile, is encouraged by her boss to take a holiday after several years of perfect attendance, excellent performance at her English factory job, and because she's never taken a holiday before. She reluctantly goes to the Irish coast but she really doesn't want to be there. She overhears a conversation in a cafe and learns of a badly injured man who survived a fire on an oil platform in the north sea. He needs nursing care until he can be safely evacuated, maybe two weeks. Hanna volunteers for the job and is flow by helicopter to the oil rig.

There she finds Josef (Tim Robbins) who sustained burns on his face and back, damaged corneas resulting in temporary blindness, and several major fractures.

Hanna had been abused in Bosnia and escaped to Copenhagen where her case was documented by Inge (Julie Christie) before she went on to England. She suffers from post traumatic shock and is reclusive with compulsive behavior.

In time, Josef begins to realize some aspects of Hanna's story and after he is transferred to hospital, he contacts Inge and learns the extent and nature of PTS and its affect on Hanna.

Eddie Marsan also appears.

A tender stories with some wonderful music. Among my favorite pieces are Tom Waits' "All the World is Green" and David Byrne's "Tiny Apocolypse."

Written and directed by Isabel Coixet.

Run time: 1 hour, 55 minutes

Not rated by MPAA.

My personal rating: B+

Imaginary Crimes (1994)

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"Never has a man less equipped for parenthood tried so hard."
Widower Ray Wiler (Harvey Keitel) is a dreamer, a schemer, and a drinker. He's also a devoted father of two girls, teenager Sonya (Fairuza Balk) and 10-year-old Greta (Elisabeth Moss). He struggles to make a living and also thinks he's got the next best invention to make his millions.

Told from the viewpoint of Sonya who is old enough now to see through her father's self-assuredness and see him as a fragile hustler without a chance of success.

Also appearing are Kelly Lynch in flashback as Ray's wife; Vincent D'Onofrio as Sonya's English teacher; Seymour Cassel as Sonya's uncle Eddie; Diane Baker as the headmistress of the school Sonya attends; Amber Benson as Sonya's best friend Margaret; Melissa Berntsen as Sonya's classmate Gigi; and Annette O'Toole and Bill Geisslinger as Gigi's parents. Chris Penn also has a small role.

Set in Oregon in the late 1950s.

Directed by Anthony Drazan.

Run time: 1 hour, 36 minutes

Rated PG.

My personal rating: B

Instinct (1999)

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"You were right, freedom is not just a dream, it's there, beyond those fences that we build all by ourselves."
After spending years living with gorillas in the African jungle, anthropologist Ethan Powell (Anthony Hopkins) goes on a rampage and murders two poachers. Upon being imprisoned in a mental facility in Florida, the psychotic Powell becomes even more withdrawn, mute and animalistic.

Young psychiatist Theo Calder (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) pleads with the head of psychiatry, Dr. Ben Hillard (Donald Sutherland) to take Powell's case hoping to unlock the secrets that lead to the anthropologist's behavior.

Also appearing ar Maura Tierney as Powell's estranged daughter; George Dzundza as a prison doctor; John Ashton as a brutal guard.

Directed by Jon Turteltaub.

Run time: 2 hours, 6 minutes

Rated R for some intense violent behavior.

My personal rating: B+

Doubt (2008)

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"Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty."
Twelve-year-old Donald Miller (Joseph Foster) breaks the color barrier at the traditional Italian/Irish Catholic school in the Bronx in 1984. Young Sister James (Amy Adams) shares with the domineering head of the school, Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) that perhaps parish priest Father Brendan Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is spending too much private time with young Donald.

Sister Aloysius jumps to the conclusion that something very inappropriate is going on and she goes after Father Flynn with a vengence.

Also appearing is Viola Davis as Donald's mother.

Play, screenplay and directed by John Patrick Shanley.

Run time: 1 hour, 44 minutes

Rated PG-13 for thematic material.

My personal rating: B

Nights in Rodanthe (2008)

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"But there's another kind of love. One that gives you the courage to be better than you are, not less than you are."
As Adrienne Willis (Diane Lane) prepares to send her two children off with he ex-husband (Christopher Meloni) for a holiday in Orlando, he tells her he wants to come back to her and urges her to go to Florida with them. Adrienne is dazed and confused. Her huband had left her for another woman and she was angry. She also had committed to tend a small rather isolated inn on North Carolina's Outer Bank for her friend Jean (Viola Davis) who had to go out of town.

At the same time, a very sad Dr. Paul Flanner (Richard Gere) is leaving his home in Raleigh just as its new owners arrive. He's headed to the inn for a few days to sort things out, try to explain a tragedy that happened in his surgery suite, and then find his estranged son (James Franco) in South America.

With a hurricane coming on, Adrienne and Paul explore their own personal crises with each other and form a bond that will affect them for the rest of their lives.

Scott Glenn also appears.

A wonderful diversity of music including "In Rodanthe" by Emmy Lou Harris.

Based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks. Directed by George C. Wolfe.

Run time: 1 hour, 37 minutes

Rated PG-13 for some sensuality.

My personal rating: B

RocknRolla (2008)

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"People ask the question... what's a RocknRolla? And I tell 'em - it's not about drums, drugs, and hospital drips, oh no. There's more there than that, my friend. We all like a bit of the good life - some the money, some the drugs, other the sex game, the glamour, or the fame. But a RocknRolla, oh, he's different. Why? Because a real RocknRolla wants the ####ing lot."
When a Russian gangster's (Karel Roden) London real estate scam flops, many of London's slimey underworld characters scramble to get rich from the chaos.

A rather frenetic tale with action and humor and a diversity of personalities including the London mobster Lennie (Tom Wilkinson) who had been setting up the original transaction; Lenny's right hand man Archie (Mark Strong); the Russian's shifty accountant (Thandie Newton); Lenny's doped-up rockstar stepson Johnny Quid (Toby Kebbell) who wants to get even with Lenny for childhood abuses; the Russian's right hand man Victor (Dragan Micanovic); Wild Bunch members One Two (Gerard Butler), Mumbles (Idris Elba) and Handsome Bob (Tom Hardy) who are in cahoots with the accountant; and Americans Roman (Jeremy Piven) and Mickey (Ludacris) who also get mixed up in the stew.

Written and directed by Guy Ritchie.

Run time: 1 hour, 55 minutes

Rated R for pervasive language, violence, drug use and brief sexuality.

My personal rating: B

The Commitments (1991)

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"Do you not get it, lads? The Irish are the blacks of Europe. And Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland. And the Northside Dubliners are the blacks of Dublin. So say it once, say it loud: I'm black and I'm proud."
Dublin lad Jimmy Rabbitte (Robert Arkins) has a dream. He wants to organize "the hardest working band" in Ireland. He gets together some of his Northside pals and auditions others who respond to ads he's run in the paper. He's really not quite sure what kind of band he wants to have but as he thinks on it, he decides he wants it to be a black soul band popularized in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s. This plan solidifies when a man old enough to be Jimmy's father appears on his doorstep to join the band. Trumpet player Joey 'The Lips' Fagan (Johnny Murphy) claims he played with the greats including Wilson Picket.

After many struggles, the band finally starts to get some recognition in Dublin. But can they survive their own in-fighting?

Others in the amazing and mostly unknown cast include: Michael Aherne as the straight-laced piano player Steven Clifford; Dave Finnegan as the brawling drummer Mickah Wallace; Angeline Ball, Maria Kennedy, and Bronagh Gallagher as the backup singers Imelda, Natalie, and Bernie; Félim Gormley as the blossoming sax player Dean Fay; Glen Hansard as the guitarist Outspan Foster; Dick Massey as the original drummer who quit Billy Mooney; Ken McCluskey as the quiet bass player Derek Scully; and Andrew Strong as the superb but cocky pig lead singer Deco Cuffe. Colm Meaney playes Jimmy Rabbitte's father.

Totally fabulous music here!

Directed by Alan Parker.

Run time: 1 hour, 59 minutes

Rated R for language.

My personal rating: B+

The Red Violin (1998)

Le violon rouge
Die Rote Violine
Il Violino Rosso

As the last violin made by Noccolo Bussotti (Carlo Cecchi) goes to auction the epic tale begins of the making and travels of this 1681 red violin which Bussotti claimed was his masterpiece and which inspired unique passion in all who came in contact with it.

Told in a series of stunning flashbacks, this film was a joint Canadian-Italian venture filmed on five countries with an international cast and tells the story covering more than 300 years.

The violin's travels and players take it to a monastic orphanage where many young boys play it for a century. When young Kaspar Weiss (Christoph Koncz) plays the violin, his brilliant talent shows and he is taken to Vienna for lessons with the French master Georges Poussin (Jean-Luc Bideau). But the fragile child dies and is returned to the monks for burial. The monks bury the child's beloved violin with him.

Later, a band of grave-robbing gypsies take possession of the violin and it is played by many generations of gypsies and finally ends up with them in England where it is used as barter for the right to camp on the grounds of a wild-eyed composer, Frederick Pope (Jason Flemyng). His talent at composing relies on his passion for his beloved Victoria (Greta Scacchi), a novelist. When Victoria leaves to do research for a book in Russion, Pope is heartbroken. The only thing that revives him is having an affair, unfortunately right at the time Victoria returns. After Pope's suicide, his Chinese manservent takes possession of the violin and returns to Shanghai where he sells it.

For decades the violin remains in the shop until it is purchased by a violinist who visited the shop with her daughter in the 1930s. More than 30 years later, the violinist's daughter, Xiang Pei (Sylvia Chang), saves the red violin from being destroyed during Mao's Cultural Revolution.

After another 30-some years have passed, the government of China is in possession of the violin and it is sent to Montreal to be appraised and auctioned.

At the auction, several people with some connection to the violin's history have arrived to bid and hopefully win the violin based only on the facts they know about the violin without regard to the rest of its history.

It takes the hard investigative work of appraiser Charles Morritz (Samuel L. Jackson) to unravel the history.

Lovingly and gorgeously filmed. Stunning music.

Co-written by François Girard and Don McKellar and directed by François Girard.

Run time: 2 hours, 11 minutes

Mostly subtitled.

Rated R for some sexuality.

My personal rating: A-

Seven Pounds (2008)

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Exacting a Pound of Flesh x7
A former aeronautical engineer posing as IRS agent Ben Thomas, is in profound pain. Wracked with guilt over the tragic deaths of seven people -- six strangers and his fiancée (Robinne Lee) -- because of his inattentiveness while driving, the man (Will Smith) makes a plan for his own future and for the future of seven other people in the LA area.

The first step of his plan is to save the life of his brother (Michael Ealy) by donating a lobe of his own lung. Later he donates a part of his liver to a social worker (Judyann Elder) he hadn't previously known. Through the social worker, he makes contact with a violently abused woman (Elpidia Carrillo) and her two children and helps them escape the brutality of her husband.

As he hears of other strangers in need, he helps them, too: A kindly youth league hockey coach (Bill Smitrovich) receives one of the faux Ben's kidney's and he donates bone marrow to a dying child (Quintin Kelley).

In the process, the faux Ben meets and falls in love with Emily Posa (Rosario Dawson), a young woman with a deteriorating heart condition and he tests a blind man (Woody Harrelson) to determine if he is a decent person worthy of a donation, too.

Also appearing are Barry Pepper as the man's best friend; Joe Nunez as the owner of the seedy motel where the man is residing, and Connor Cruise (son of Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise) playing the man as a boy.

A touching and bittersweet story about redemption and transformation.

Directed by Gabriele Muccino.

Run time: 2 hours, 3 minutes

Rated PG-13 for thematic material, some disturbing content and a scene of sensuality.

My personal rating: B

In the Electric Mist (2009)

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"...I was about to learn that the dead can hover on the edge of our vision with the density and luminosity of mist. And their claim on the earth can be as legitimate and tenacious as our own."
Lots of substories here and a bit hard to follow but nonetheless, an interesting film with some fine acting.

Detective Dave Robichaux (Tommy Lee Jones) in Louisiana bayou country gets involved with a mystery apparently involving a couple of brutal murders, a local Mafia pin Julie "Baby Feets" Balbonin (John Goodman), the murder of an African-American prisoner in the swamp 40 years before, and some sage advice from the ghost of a Confederate officer (Levon Helm).

Others in the cast include: Mary Steenburgen as Dave's wife Bootsie; Alana Locke as his young daughter; Kelly Macdonald and Peter Sarsgaard as actors in a film being made in that area of Louisiana; John Sayles as the director of the film; Justina Machado as an FBI agent; Buddy Guy as bluesman Hogman Patin. Others appearing are Ned Beatty, James Gammon.

Directed by Bertrand Tavernier.

Run time: 1 hour, 42 minutes

Rated R for violence, language and brief sexuality/nudity.

My personal rating: B

American History X (1998)

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"Has anything you've ever done made your life better?"
Cameron Alexander (Stacy Keach) is a chickhawk. A predator. He hunts down likely teenage boys in the Venice Beach area to incite other young men to the supremacist cause. He finds the potential for a real leader in Derek Vinyard (Edward Norton), a young man whose fireman father had been murdered at the scene of a fire by African-American drug dealer. Derek's rage was palpable immediately and he quickly became a powerful force in the skinhead youth movement. When a gang of black youths break into his car one night, Derek goes after them with a semi-automatic and kills two of them, brutally and maliciously breaking the neck of one.

On the day of Derek's release from prison after three years for voluntary manslaughter, his kid brother Danny (Edward Furlong) is turned into the principal Bob Sweeney's (Avery Brooks) office by his history teacher (Eliot Gould) for writing a paper on Mein Kampf that supports the actions of Hitler. Sweeney, an African-American who has worked closely with gang problems in the past, knows how influential Derek has been in Danny's young life. He tells Danny that he'll be conducting a private class for Danny called American History X and Danny's first assignment is to write a paper about Derek. Derek is clearly Danny's hero and role model. To Danny, Derek made the neighborhood safe from the aggressions of the black boys.

But Derek is a changed man because of the brutality and experiences he had in prison at the hands of other skinheads. He's concerned about Danny's dedication to Cameran Alexander and racist attitude. Derek is done with it, all of it, but can he save his little brother?

Also appearing are Beverly D'Angelo as the Vinyard boys' mother; Jennifer Lien as their sister Davina; Fairuza Balk as Derek's pre-prison girlfriend; and Ethan Suplee as Derek's NeoNazi friend Seth.

This is an incredibly powerful, intense and violent film told largely in a series of flashbacks which were filmed in black and white so as to keep past and current times distinguished from each other.

Edward Norton was rightfully nominated for an Oscar for this performance.

Dorected by Tony Kaye.

Run time: 1 hour, 58 minutes

Rated R for sexuality, nudity, violence, and language.

My personal rating: B+

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

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"A few hours ago, you were giving chai for the phone walahs. And now you're richer than they will ever be. What a player!"
Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) is an uneducated teenage orphan from one of India's most impoverished slums. He's seen the brutality and even the murder of his own mother in this slum. And yet here he is, appearing on the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire -- and he's answering all the questions correctly.

When the show breaks for the night, Jamal is arrested and tortured by the police in an effort to discover how he is cheating. But as the story of Jamal's life is revealed in flashback, he also reveals how he came to know the answers to all the questions he's been asked.

The cast also includes Ayush Mahesh Khedekar as the young Jamal; Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail as Jamal's brother; Freida Pinto as Jamal's young girlfriend when they were children; and Irrfan Khan as the police inspector.

Won numerous prestigious awards including the Academy Award for Best Film of 2008.

Directed by Danny Boyle.

Partially subtitled.

Run time: 2 hours

Rated R for some violence, disturbing images and language.

My personal rating: B