I appreciate the craft and hard work that goes into any film, even if the final result isn't all it was meant to be. I'm doubly impressed by the work put into indie films. And I'm not talking about something like Pulp Fiction, that has a relatively huge budget, movie stars and professional crew. I'm talking about true independents, films that have zero connections to Hollywood, that are made completely outside of the system, with thread bare budgets. Automaton Transfusion is such a film, made in Florida, with a budget under $100K, and not a single recognizable actor.

I'm usually much easier on such films, because I know exactly how much love and hard work is donated in making a film like this. So while I wouldn't rate this as a fantastic film, I'm deeply impressed by what they were able to create. The filmmakers said screw-it in trying to develop a unique story, they used as few dialogue scenes as possible, and focused all their attention on creating some serious gore. They knew that hardcore horror fans would forgive the bad acting and the cliche' ideas, if they were fully entertained by the sight of nonstop blood.

It's a normal Friday afternoon in Grover City, a few high school seniors have a night of partying ahead of them, but things go awry when a horde of zombies attack their town and they're forced to fight for their lives. That's about it on the plot. One minute their biggest problem is a pimple, the next they're running to literally save their skin. Near the end of the film, the film comes to a screeching halt with a poorly done scene of exposition, as a soldier explains why everything just happened and also sets up the sequel. The filmmakers planned on turning Automaton Transfusion into a trilogy, and the film ends with a: to be continued...

However, you don't watch zombie films for originality, you watch them for bodies being torn apart and eaten. Automaton Transfusion has that in spades. Despite the low budget, they went all out on the gore. Every body part imaginable is ripped off in waves of the sticky red stuff. They created the most imaginative death I've ever seen in a zombie flick, as a girl's unborn baby is torn out of her stomach and bitten into, while she screams helplessly, before getting eaten herself. It's so disgustingly perverse, so over the edge, that I actually cheered when it happened. There are never ending waves of zombies, the filmmakers got every friend and friend of friends to show up to get turned into the undead. They're the new-style zombies, quick moving, with a touch of smarts in how to get to their victims.

If you're any kind of horror fan, you have to do yourself a favor and see this film. What it lacks in acting, most of the characters are seriously bad, the less talking the better; and story, it's your basic military experiment gone wrong plot; it more than makes up for in stylized gore. The make-up artists did a great job in creating some seriously sick imagery. They even got their city to shut down a few blocks, to add to the authenticity. There was one thing about the filmmaking that bugged me all the way through, I'm not sure if they were trying to get a film look out of their video source, but the whole film has that skipped-frame look. You know like some of the battle scenes in Gladiator, it's an effect that should be used sparingly, and they went a little nuts with it here.

Ultimately I believe that writer/director Steven C. Miller has a very promising future in horror. With Automaton Transfusion he created a lot out of a little, if he gets any kind of budget and a decent script, he could create a classic horror film. - Grade: B+

I've been a big Stephen King fan since I started reading novels. Yet I'd never read one of his most famous novels. Maybe in part because I didn't want the perfection that is Stanley Kubrick's film ruined in any way. But after reading it, I can see why King complained about Kubrick's film being such a horrible adaptation of his book. It's a beautiful film, but beyond the basic set-up they don't have a lot in common. The book is of course far more in depth. You learn much more about the hotel's history, and there is much more hauntings going on than in the film. You get a much better feeling for what's going on in Danny's head. It's also extremely scary, not often do I get scared by reading, but the scene where Danny finds the dead woman in the bath gave me the creeps, and I kept thinking about it as I was going to bed.

I'm very glad that I read it now. The next time I see the film, I'll appreciate it for what it is, but I'll also be able to enjoy it on a deeper level, having a greater understanding on everything that is going on. - Grade: A

Every spring, about the time baseball is going to start, I watch a baseball movie. Usually it's Major League, the perfect cliche' comedy-sports film, but it had been a few years since I'd seen Field of Dreams.

Writer/Director Phil Alden Robinson caught lightning in a bottle with Field of Dreams. Never again did he create a film nearly as good or popular. (Although I've always had a soft spot for Sneakers.) It's one of those amazing films that is inexplicably good, the acting is solid, the story doesn't blow you away, it sneaks up on you instead, the film-making is typical Hollywood style, with nothing that particularly stand out, but the overall effect is wonderful. No matter how many times you've seen it, it leaves you with a better perspective on life. It's a beautiful film for men or women, anybody with a heart is touched by it's magic.

Kevin Costner is at his charismatic every-man best. James Earl Jones gets a chance to use that wonderful voice of his, in his best scene, he gets to talk about the beauty of baseball. I love every single shot of the baseball field in the middle of all that corn, it's Americana at it's most perfect. The story of Shoeless Joe Jackson getting another chance to play the thing he loves most is heartwarming. Each scene builds perfectly on the one before it, and when you've seen as many film's as I have, you begin to realize, just how tough that really is. At it's heart, the film is about redemption, showing those you love who you really are, and how far you'll go for them. So by the time Ray gets to "have a catch" with his estranged father, it starts to get a bit dusty in the room.

I've said in the past that I miss Disney's traditional 2D hand drawn animation. Unfortunately it doesn't look like it's making a comeback anytime soon, so Enchanted is probably the closest thing we're going to get. I'll also admit that I enjoy the mixture of animation of live-action, a surreal quality that I've yet to get over. Those qualities and the good reviews that it received, I was somewhat excited to see this film aimed at 10-year-old girls. I was also hoping that my son might enjoy it, and as always he was my excuse to watch it.

The first 15 minutes is a bit of a send-up of Disney's classic damsel in distress, waiting for her prince to rescue her storyline, Cinderella and Snow White are the most obvious inspirations, but you'll notice touches from a lot of their films. The animation is nicely done, but seems kind of soft, it doesn't have the crispness of their prior films; I'm guessing they were going for a girlie kind of look. That's the main problem I had with the film, it's way too girlie. I know that's pretty much the point, but I would have enjoyed it a lot more if they'd reigned in the sappiness.

I liked a lot of the story, it's completely predictable that Gisele will learn and grow as a person, from her blind happily ever after persona, to a more real life woman. It's also obvious as to who she's going to end up with, exactly when and how. But this is a film for little girls, so I wasn't expecting any surprises. I was hoping for a little more spark to it all, any time Dempsey shows up, he seems to suck all the energy out of the film.

Enchanted is a cute and fairly well made film. It starts off very inspired with the great spoof of Disney classics; I especially liked the Happy Working Song, where Gisele uses her magical voice to get the animals of New York, rats, pigeons and cockroaches to help her clean Dempsey's apartment. But somewhere in the 2nd act, it becomes a fairly typical romantic comedy, with a bit of fantasy twist, and the songs become a lot lamer. I did think the dragon at the end was fairly cool to watch, and there was a slight twist in who goes after it. If you have a young girl in the house, this is very likely already a favorite; for the boys, I think I enjoyed it more than my son, and we won't bother buying it for him. - Grade: C+

Since anybody who would bother to read this site has a 99.9% chance of already seeing Dumbo, I won't bother with a review. I'll simply post a few clips.

The first is the original 1941 trailer. Amazing, simply for how different they used to advertise films.

My favorite scene in the film, "Pink Elephants on Parade". Again amazing, for how times have changed. You could never get away with a scene of a drunk character, that turns out to be this trippy in a G rated film these days. Gorgeously hand animated, they simply don't make them like this anymore.

My 2nd favorite scene, which might be considered racist by some, and I can understand their point of view, but I choose not to see it that way, and simply enjoy it as a wonderful musical number. I love most of the music in these classic Disney films, they're entertaining and move the plot along. The later Disney films, once the characters start singing, it brings the whole movie to a stop. Enjoy, "When I See an Elephant Fly."

I originally saw this when I was about 12 years old and it scared the hell out of me. I remember laying in bed obsessively thinking about this shapeless killer sliming its way into my room. I've had affection for this film ever since. I watched it a few more times over the years, bought it when it first came out on DVD, and being in the mood for a decent 80's horror flick, decided to revisit it after running across it in my collection.

I don't believe I've ever seen the original The Blob all the way through. Sure I remember the imagery of Steve McQueen running from it, but that's about it. It's one of the classic sci-fi/horror movie ideas, and like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, I wouldn't mind them remaking it every other generation. I'm sure there's a script floating around for it right now, with a 2000's twist to it.

Despite some bad blue screen backgrounds, which pop up sparingly through this film, it remains fairly timeless. A solid script by Frank Darabont and director Chuck Russell sets the perfect tone, which is dryly funny, a fairly realistic take, and also seriously scary at times. They didn't wimp out when it came to the film's death scenes. Even going so far as to kill a little kid, an extreme rarity. I remember being stunned when the kid dies, they'd always gotten away before that, and that freaked me out.

Kevin Dillan, long before his Entourage days, plays Brian Flagg, a small town bad-ass, with accompanying leather jacket, motorcycle and silky-smooth mullet. And way before her turn as a killer in the Saw flicks, Shawnee Smith played Meg Penny, the town good girl, who always does the right thing. Their paths cross when Meg and her boyfriend run down an old man, who previously stumbled across the Blob and is now slowly snacking his hand. Brian rides with them to the hospital, so they can get their stories straight, but takes off before the Blob swallows the rest of the old man and then eats Meg's boyfriend.

Of course nobody believes Meg's story about the killer Jello, chalking it up to the shock of her boyfriend's death, but she knows what's out there. Soon it's eating more people, including in one of my favorite scenes, a couple out for a night of parking. Meg decides to take action and escapes out her bedroom window, running into Brian, the only other person to have seen the Blob and live. Looking for clues, they run across a group of Government scientists who are searching for the Blob, and unwittingly reveal its true origins. Meanwhile Meg's little brother, his friend and a theater full of people are attacked while watching a horror movie. After absorbing a few dozen people, the Blob has grown to massive proportions and the whole town is under risk. It's up to the rotten-egg and the goody-two-shoes to save everyone.

This film is fairly straight-forward, you can pretty much guess where it's going the whole time. But it's almost perfectly executed, making it a very fun ride. Director Chuck Russell uses some great gruesome effects, with people melting and getting sucked into drains, to convey the true horror that this ever growing shapeless killer is capable of. The dialogue is crisp throughout, making the ridiculous seem realistic, and giving Kevin Dillon a couple of great one-liners. I believe The Blob a forgotten classic, and if it weren't for John Carpenter's version of The Thing, I'd call it the best ever remake. If you haven't seen it, do yourself a a favor and do so. - Grade: B+

The professional assassin with a growing conscience has been an extremely popular character over the last decade, I think it started with The Professional, and maybe before that in La Femme Nikita. Every aspect of this character has been explored. I think that the makers of Hitman realized that, and went purely for the action end of the profession. The film is beautifully shot and the action scenes are very well put together, but without the emotional impact you don't feel a connection with the characters, so it remains just that, pretty action scenes.

The Professional, one of my all time favorite films, while having top notch action, remains with me because of the love that grows between Leon and Mathilda. They try do to explore that minimally in Hitman, with the connection between Agent 47 and Nika, the girl he's protecting. But Agent 47 remains a robot throughout the film; that even when Nika tries to seduce him, he responds by knocking her out. I liked that they try something different with him as a character, but it makes it tough to feel anything for him, when he doesn't feel anything for the people around him. I liked Nika's character, tough but vulnerable, she plays our connection to 47, and actress Olga Kurylenko is extremely easy on the eyes.

The story of Hitman didn't do a whole lot for me either, the Agency that employs him turning against him, forcing him to fight his former team, is really old hat. The Interpol agent on a mission to stop him, played with a permanent grimace by Dougray Scott, is also really played out. It soon became an unfunny joke that Interpol was having such a hard time finding this guy, who constantly walks around in plain site with a bald head tattooed with bar code, the guy kind of stands out wherever he goes, not once does he go in disguise or even put on a hat.

So while there were fairly good performances by the actors, and director Xavier Gens has a very good eye and a sense on how to build an action scene; I particularly liked the sword fight in the subway car. But without a story or characters to care about, the only reason to watch it soon became purely for the action. Nothing about the film seemed fresh. I think it's decent enough to satisfy the players of the game and hardcore action fans; but if you're looking for something original or truly satisfying, look elsewhere. - Grade: C+

Stupid movies of my youth; I thought that once I made it to high school, joined a Frat, or got my License to Drive, that I'd be set, and it'd be non-stop partying for the years to come. Of course I quickly realized that wasn't how my teenage years would be; instead it turned into years of bashful awkwardness. But still when I watch those care-free 80's movies, I'm taken back and get a glimmer of that feeling, which is wonderful, even if it's very brief. It had been a long time since I'd seen License to Drive, probably before I got my drivers license, I wasn't sure how it was going to hold up.

The opening scene (see below) where Les, played by Corey Haim at the height of his charisma, is asleep in his drivers-ed class and dreaming about a demonic school bus driver (shades of A Nightmare on Elm St. part 2), a Magnum P.I. Ferrari, and a very young Heather Graham, is most excellently done; with just the right amount of charm and cheesiness, and put together very nicely, with great photography and editing. It reminded me of John Hughes at his peak and gave me hopes that I could enjoy License to Drive on more than a nostalgic level. The rest of the film isn't quite up to par, it'd be tough to keep up that pace, but it is still very entertaining and well done.

Corey Haim and Corey Feldman did a quite a few films together in the 80's and early 90's, I'd say without a doubt that this is their best pairing. (Lost Boys is a better film, but they have a different dynamic.) They were great friends in real life, and that friendship shines through in this film, they play wonderfully off each other making it enjoyable to watch. Maybe I'm biased as a child of the 80's, but it seems there really hasn't been a great teenage actor that could easily carry a film, since that decade. Show me a young actor of the 90's or 00's that can hang with the likes of Corey Haim, Feldman, John Cusack or Anthony Michael Hall. (Maybe Shia LaBeouf?)

Les is determined to get his drivers license, it's the biggest goal of young his life. He believes that once he has it, he can do anything he wants; which includes dating the school's hottie, Mercedes Lane. There's another pretty great driving scene, where Les takes his driver's test with a psychotic DMV employee, who will only pass him if he doesn't spill his piping hot coffee, and proceeds to take him through a series of the toughest driving conditions, and does notably well. Afterwards it comes out that he didn't pass his previous computer quiz, and the brief hold on his license is taken away.

Thinking he'd pass no problem, he's already promised to take his best friends and Mercedes out for a night on the town, so he sneaks the keys to his Grandfather's beloved Cadillac and proceeds to have the kind of night that can happen in movie-land. He and his friends are taken through a chaotic series of events; each one more perilous than the last, with the poor car getting more trashed by the minute. Then through the magic of screen-writing, he's able to redeem himself with another crazy driving scenario, showing his parents all the tricks he learned from the previous night, and they quickly forgive him despite his demolishing their trust. Of course he lands the girl as well.

The film is so very obviously influenced by his style, most directly Ferris Bueller, that I'd say this was the best John Hughes film that he didn't direct. The hair and clothes are very 80's, but I think that the drivers license right-of-passage is such a universal American teen story, and the film is so genuinely funny and well made, that even today's kids would enjoy it. As a look back, it took me to a more innocent time, where a drivers license meant freedom, not going to work or driving the kids somewhere. License to Drive is a classic 80's teenage flick. - Grade: B+

I was one of the few people that defended McG's direction of Charlie's Angels, I thought it was spot-on for that particular film. The sequel, I wasn't as fond of, but it had a stupid, goofy charm that made it enjoyable. So I was interested in seeing what he could do with a film beyond that world, but was surprised when he signed on to do We Are Marshall. I wasn't sure if he could do drama, if he could calm his camera and editing down to a reasonable pace. After finally getting around to seeing it, he proves that he's got some adult in him as well.

Now, I wouldn't call Marshall, a great or even a very good film, but it's passable; good enough to keep you interested in the story. He gets some fine performances out of some good actors, I particularly liked David Strathairn as the school's Dean and Ian McShane as a grieving father. Matthew Fox has got the quiet, pensive act down pat. Matthew McConaughey is trying too hard not to play himself, he's got a weird accent, that must be some attempt at trying to sound like the real guy, but it came off as distracting; I thought he should have been reigned in a little more.

I was born after the Marshall University plane crash tragedy, thousands of miles away, so I didn't know anything about it's history. There's no way I can attest to the accuracy of the film's portrayal, it feels real enough, but there are scenes that are definitely built for emotional impact. At least they don't have the football team coming back to win the National Championship, they're content with having a moral victory. I thought that the football scenes were overly dramatic, turning routine plays into something way beyond that; and everything was shot too close, so it's hard to tell what's really going on. But I appreciated the passion that surrounded the games, I liked the journey the team, coaches and town takes getting back to the field. From what I've read those touched by the tragedy, were happy with the film, and since it's their story, that's what's most important.

If I didn't know, I would never have been able to tell this film had the same director as Angels; it lacks that visual panache, but it's a story that didn't need it, an over-active camera would have felt out of place. What most felt like his touch was in the soundtrack, he has a penchant for Top 40 hits used in the most obvious ways; and you'll recognize every song as a classic rock staple. I think that McG has a decent career ahead of him, he'll turn out to be a competent studio director, that's comfortable in multiple genres. And maybe just every once and a while he'll knock one out of the park. We Are Marshall, is a fairly nice sports drama, it won't become a classic, but it goes down smoothly without a bad aftertaste. - Grade: B-

The Osterman Weekend was legendary director Sam Peckinpah's last film; and sadly it shows. It's messy and underwhelming, and most unfortunate of all, boring; with none of the action-fireworks or visceral-punch of his classic films: The Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs or The Getaway.

The film is about a CIA agent played by John Hurt, convincing Rutger Hauer's character, a journalist, that his group of long-time friends are in fact traitors, selling secrets to the Russians. And that he can best capture them by getting them all together at Rutger's house for a weekend.

But everything isn't as it seems; with characters playing each other with all kinds of double crosses, everyone has their own agenda. I honestly lost track of what all was going on; only because I was so bored that my mind didn't want to do the work of connecting everything. I tried to enjoy it for the few action scenes, but none of them were very exciting, so I truly lost all interest before the twists started revealing themselves.

That's about all I have to say about this film, it doesn't deserve a full review; I'll let the two film clips below speak for me. - Grade: C-

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A very underwhelming car chase, as Rutger goes after his family's station wagon, the kind with the fake wood paneling on the side, in a beat up old F-150. I guess Peckinpah was going for an everyday kind of car feel, but it's honestly just boring. There is one good crash, as some pipes impale another driver's car.

It's Rutger Hauer vs. Craig T. Nelson (and his ultra-sweet mustache) in a slow-motion fight, featuring all kinds of breaking glass, a theme that runs deep in The Osterman Weekend.

I didn't think too much of the trailer for Horton Hears A Who, it didn't make it look like a particularly good film. And I abhor the uber-celebrity casting for these animated films, it usually ends up being more distracting than anything, as I always imagine these stars behind the mic, instead of getting involved in their characters. I honestly haven't been that impressed with the latest crop of computer-animated films outside of Pixar's work and the inspired Surf's Up; the magic has worn off, and most of them have become as bland as any standard Hollywood production. But it had been a few months since anything kid friendly had been released, and we wanted to take our son to see something, and this was the only thing that fit the bill.

Like every American kid I grew up on Dr. Suess books, I love everything about them and still do; they are my favorite thing to read to my son. Sadly we haven't had a good Dr. Suess film adaptation, since the original animated Christmas classic, How the Grinch Who Stole Christmas; the two live action adaptations, The Grinch and The Cat and the Hat both landed somewhere between slightly bearable and putrid. So I didn't have great expectations for Horton Hears A Who, but as soon as the first scene started to roll, they started to rise. The film gorgeously creates the great adventure of a drop of dew rolling and falling through the entire jungle of Nool, before it knocks loose a tiny speck, that is in fact the world of Whoville.

The speck is sent floating by Horton, a happy, go-lucky elephant, who is swimming in a nearby stream. With his huge ears, Horton is able to hear the quiet screams of the Who's as their tiny world goes floating by; he manages to save them, just before they're dunked in the water. Jim Carrey is really wonderful as Horton, I thought he might get to crazy with the role, but the filmmakers keep him mostly reigned in and in character. Steve Carrell is also good as the Mayor of Whoville, who Horton communicates with, and promises to save their world by placing their speck on a protected flower at the top of the tallest mountain in Nool. Carol Burnett plays Kangaroo, a cranky WASP of woman, who doesn't like Horton's large heart and imagination influencing the jungle's children. Unable to keep her prejudices to herself, she sicks a nasty Vulture on Horton; and then to really make sure he doesn't complete his quest, organizes a huge rally of animals, by playing with their fears.

I was really surprised by how caught up in it all that I got. The way they present this children's story, translates so well to so many aspects of our real life issues, that it took it to a whole new level. I guess the anti-abortionists have grabbed on to Horton's saying "A person 's a person, no matter how small they are."; which fits for their purposes, but I took it to mean, that a person is a person, no matter the color of their skin, their sexual orientation, their religion, whether they have disabilities or not; meaning that no one should be discriminated against, no matter what, and that's a wonderful message to convey to kids, and it's done in a very entertaining way.

The film is beautifully animated, the opening scene as they fly through the jungle is so luscious that it looks more real than real; all the characters are very nicely created and done in a true Suess style. The narrator reading lines directly from the book, is a very nice touch. They don't ham up the story with all kinds of pop-culture references, keeping it timeless. I felt there was only one small misstep in the entire film; when the characters all break into song for a few minutes, but it was brief, mostly the film stays very classic. If every Dr. Suess book could be as faithfully adapted as Horton Hears A Who, I'd tell Hollywood to bring on as many as they can make. Unfortunately I don't think that's realistic. - Grade: B+

After a fairly inspired opening, with an Empire State Building window washer getting his head bit off, and some funny sarcastic remarks by David Carradine playing a New York City detective who cleans up the mess; I thought I was in for some good cheesy fun. But unfortunately the film quickly devolves into a boring mess. About every 15 to 20 twenty minutes the ancient bird-monster Q shows up and carries some poor soul off to eat, and those moments are decent, but they're too few and far apart.

For some reason a movie called Q: The Winged Serpent, is more about some low life scum named Jimmy Quinn, played by Michael Moriarty (also in the much better Troll). Quinn is an unemployed alcoholic with a shady side; he has hopes to be a better man, mostly for his long-suffering girlfriend, but with no job offers, he takes up with a couple of jewelery robbers as a getaway driver. When they force him to come into the store with them, the robbery goes wrong, and he escapes with the jewels and runs for his life; eventually he makes his way up into the top of the Chrysler Building, where he finds a giant nest full of human skeletons.

Meanwhile, David Carradine and Richard Roundtree, great B-Movie casting, but sadly wasted, are detective partners looking for a serial killer with an Aztec twist. It seems an Aztec Priest, who's been sacrificing people by carving their skin off, has invoked the god Quetzlcoatl, a giant bird monster who has a penchant for rooftop sunbathers. Not a bad idea, but it's not too deeply explored. Again, they spend way too much time with Quinn. The guy's a total drag, he's constantly whining about how horrible his life is, and wondering why he can't be a better person. I wanted to see some people get eaten by a flying monster, not a lamely done drama about a guy with a conscience problem.

Quinn proves that he's a real scumbag when he holds the city hostage by not revealing the location of the bird's nest. He insists on a million dollars and some respect, or the killings won't stop. The last five minutes of Q are by far the best part of the film. We finally get to see more than a beak or a claw of the monster, as they show all of Q in glorious stop-motion animation, flying around the Chrysler Building as Carradine and his crew of cops shoot her down; the poor thing only wanted to collect some food for her soon to be hatched egg. So what if some heads had to be removed, she's an endangered species and should be protected.

If the movie had been about Q attacking New Yorkers, and Carradine and Roundtree investigating, it could have been a fun B-Movie; when those elements were on screen, it is an entertaining film. But they let what should have been a minor character take over the film; I didn't care about Quinn in the least, he could have found the bird, and that would have been enough. I didn't care about his feelings or his relationship with his girlfriend. His unredeemable character drags the film down so far, that it's not worth sitting through for the few good scenes of Q swooping in to grab people. It's unbearable for even those that love bad movies. - Grade: D

When you hear about 70's car chase films; it's usually about Bullitt, The Vanishing Point, or the car chase from The French Connection. You don't often hear about Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry, which is surprising, because after seeing it for the first time; I think it's easily one of the best of the bunch. It has charismatic performances, an intriguing reason for the chase, and most importantly the car chases are top notch.

Five years after Easy Rider made Peter Fonda an icon of the 60's, and one of cinema's most beloved anti-heroes; he's back on the road as Larry, a dirt-track race car driver with Nascar dreams. He and his partner/mechanic Deke, need a lot of money to buy a car and an opportunity to race with the best. At the very beginning of the film, they pull off a fairly ingenious robbery of a grocery store's safe, without guns and no one getting hurt. They think they've pulled off the perfect crime, with plenty of time to get away. Their plans are thrown for a bit of a loop when Mary, who Larry had a one-night-stand with the night before the robbery, insists on coming along.

What follows is almost an hour straight of car racing, they're often being chased, but even when they're not, Crazy Larry, lives up to his name, by making many unnecessarily dangerous maneuvers. From the moment she gets in the car, Larry and Mary are bickering like an old married couple, with poor Deke, sitting in the back, having to listen to it all, while also trying to be the voice of reason. They make a couple of quick stops; to fix the car, to lay low for a few minutes and change cars, but they're always quickly back on the road. Once they've changed cars, a sweet lime green Dodge Charger, it's non-stop chasing. Whether they're going up against twenty cops or just one who fancies himself a racer, in a souped-up cop-car, and even a helicopter (see below), Larry proves himself the best driver on the road. Only at the very end does he make a very surprising mistake; which goes along with the nihilistic endings of many 70's films.

The film is full of very real and exciting car chases, plenty of jumps, close-calls and pile-ups. In the beginning of the film, the characters are not easy to root for, they do some despicable things, but through the course of the film, you're brought into their dream and want them to escape; Mary has her own reasons for wanting to get away. Peter Fonda and Susan George have a great and easy chemistry together as Larry and Mary. Vic Morrow is entertaining as the rogue cop chasing them, willing to do anything to make the capture. They really don't make films like Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry anymore. - Grade: B

This was a favorite of mine from my childhood, but it had been a long time since I'd seen it. From what I remembered of it, it seemed that it was a fairly well made film, and that it would manage to hold up over 20 years later. And it did, surprisingly well in fact, even much of the special effects, because they didn't try to get too fancy with them, sticking to the basics; including a cool stop-motion dinosaur. (See below) None of the 80's fashions or dialogue is too obnoxious, nothing so distracting that it'll pull you out of the film. I think this film would still work for a kids. It's a fun, whimsical ride.

Mike Harlan is a decent kid, a bit obsessed with cars, in fact it's the only thing he cares about, but he has a good heart. When his science teacher, played by Dennis Hopper in full-on psychedelic mode, asks him to turn in anything for his science project so he can graduate, Mike wants to do it right and go big. So he breaks into the military junkyard that's outside of town, he kills two birds with one stone, by inviting along the nerdy, but cute Ellie, who sort of blackmailed him into a date. While sneaking around the dilapidated war planes, he accidentally falls into a bunker, where he comes across some crazy looking machine; that is originally from a spacecraft from Area 51, but he doesn't know that. On the drive home, we see a sneak peak of the machine's powers, when it drains the battery from Mike's precious car.

While showing it to his buddy Vince, played by the very funny Fisher Stevens, before class, they plug it into the wall and unknowingly jump a few hours into the future. When they show it to their science teacher, even stranger things happen, like Dennis Hopper getting sucked inside to another time. After that, they decide to leave it alone, but when it gets left on by the geeky Sherman, who's jealous of Mike and Ellie's new relationship, all hell breaks loose. And it's up to Mike, Vince and Sherman to travel through all of Earth's history contained within their high school, to save Ellie who's trapped inside. They battle through everything from dinosaurs to futuristic mutants wielding laser guns.

I'd never heard of this film when it popped up on the Fox Movie Channel, but I noticed that it was a teen-sex comedy from the 80's, one of my favorite genres, so I had to see it. A few minutes in, it was quite apparent why I had never heard of this film before. It's god awful. I was laughing, but in all the wrong spots; their attempts at comedy were heavy handed and obvious, their attempts at building any kind of drama, hilarious! This film is shockingly 80's, the clothes, the hair; it's like spending the night at Steve Guttenberg's house.

The film concerns the cheerleader camp, Camp Beaver View; no, that's not a sexual innuendo or anything. Every year cheerleaders from around the country arrive at Beaver View, to receive the finest in cheerleader training. Tommy Hamilton is the lead instructor, he's in his mid 20's and feels like he should be done with cheerleading; unfortunately it's the only thing he's really good at. Well that, and getting girls, which is a prerequisite for any 80's teen movie heart-throb. He has an awful scene that plays like some kind homo-erotic rip-off of Flashdance, where's he's stripping off his clothes, dancing in the shower and even does some gymnastic moves on the plumbing, to give a couple of teenage girls some cheap thrills.

I've never been that big of a vampire fan; too many weaknesses, too much romance, too little ferociousness. Getting bit on the neck, then getting to live forever, never seemed that threatening to me. (I've always preferred werewolves, though there isn't nearly as many films about them.) My favorite vampire film has always been Near Dark, it's gritty and violent, with a little more realistic approach to them as another species. When I saw the trailer for 30 Days of Night, it conveyed a dark edge; it was the first vampire film I was stoked to see in over 10 years, since the Tarantino and Rodriguez mash-up From Dusk Till Dawn. Once it came out, I didn't hear anybody have anything good to say about it, but I still had to check it out for myself.

Since I've watched this, I've talked to a few others who also didn't like it, people I usually agree with. I honestly don't understand why people aren't enjoying 30 Days of Night. It's nowhere close to being a perfect film, but I thought it was very entertaining; full of blood, a couple of good horror scenes, a great location, nice photography and no off-putting acting. I want to recommend it to any fan of horror films, I believe that the appreciation of this film will grow in the coming years. Maybe it's ahead of it's time?

I loved the idea of staging the whole thing in Alaska just when the sun is setting for a month, it seems like the perfect place for vampires to attack. I liked how ferocious these vampires are, they cut a person down and tear them to shreds in a few seconds. None of the regular preening and posturing that goes along with a lot of these films. They also don't leave anyone alive to turn into another vampire; they're greedy about their food, don't want another mouth around to feed. I honestly thought these were the coolest vampires since Near Dark.

Josh Hartnett is decent as the small town sheriff; he does his usual silent brooding thing. Melissa George is good as his ex-girlfriend, who gets caught in Alaska against her wishes; she looks good and is still believable as she's kicking some undead ass. Ben Foster plays about his 12th psycho in a row, but he's good and entertaining at it; here he plays a human so desperate to become a vampire, that he sets a screen for them, by coming into town and acting crazy, occupying the sheriff for a while. And I was surprised to see the great character Danny Huston, he adds a bit of class, as the lead vampire Marlow.

I'm not sure what people are missing in this film. It has a very cool, comic book type look to it, not as stylized as Sin City or 300, but it's own unique blend; every frame is very well thought out. I dug the story, with the cast hiding out in a boarded up house, with their town overrun by vampires, nowhere to run and no hope of the sun coming up. Overall I was impressed with the cast; quite a few of the smaller parts are fairly memorable too, always a sign of a good film in my book. So, while most are calling this a lame duck, I really enjoyed it; it is far better directed, photographed, edited, acted, written, and designed than 90% of the crap they're calling horror films these days. I say, give it a try. - Grade: B

I absolutely adored Noah Baumbach's last film The Squid and the Whale; it perfectly and realistically captured the drama of going through a divorce through a child's perspective. His first film Kicking and Screaming is a 90's classic, and very well sums up what it was like to be a young adult during that moment in time. So I was hoping and expecting more from Margot at the Wedding; a strangely unfocused film, with some very intense performances from Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

This film is much more of an actor's piece (it could have easily been made into play), than any kind of film-maker's exercise. Baumbach almost unconsciously points his hand-held camera in the direction of the actors, as they tear into these meaty dialogues about family, friends, faith and everything in-between. Margot, played with ice in her veins by Nicole Kidman, is a mother and semi-successful author. She and her teenage son have come to her childhood home to attempt to heal her relationship with her long estranged sister, played with bravado by Jennifer Jason Leigh. She's getting married to a pretentious, louse of a man; Jack Black in his most realistic role. Caught in the middle are the two teenage children, who try to escape the verbal assaults without too much adolescent trauma.

It's often painful and sometimes funny to watch these sisters converse with one another. One minute they're completely in love, best friends; the next they're practically tearing each other's eyes out; and they're constantly berating the other behind their backs, to anyone who has the misfortune of being at this disgrace of a wedding weekend. Both the women put on quite a show; one minute you love and feel for them, but a quick tongued barb later, there's nothing but contempt. Both are insanely bright about the world, but at the same time completely clueless of how to treat their friends and family. Baumbach's camera makes you feel like a member of this highly dysfunctional and well bred family.

Margot at the Wedding drops you off at this cold beach house for a dramatic weekend with a seriously messed up family; there's a lot of fighting and screaming, some awkward moments, a few painful laughs, and a bit of personal growth. The performances by the three leads and two kids make it worth watching, everyone is at the top of their game. Not a whole of of story is developed, it's not as funny as I was expecting, and it's not anywhere near totally satisfying, but ultimately it's an interesting film. - Grade: C+

This is an absolutely beautiful film, gorgeously photographed, with sets and costumes too die for, perfectly acted, an impeccably well told piece of history. You really couldn't ask for a better made film. That said, I struggled getting through it. It's long, slow moving and very depressing.

(Maybe I felt this way, because I recently watched Paul Verhoeven's The Black Book, which tells a very similar tale, in a much more exciting, guns-a-blazing, breasts-a-popping fashion, with a much happier ending.)

Lust, Caution is so well done that I would call it a must watch for anyone with an interest in history, but don't tread into it lightly. I was enraptured by this glimpse at Chinese history during WWII; it was something I'd never seen before. I really felt for Wong Chia Chi as she infiltrates the Japanese army through the Chinese traitor Mr. Yee, played with tremendous grace by Tony Leung Chiu Wai as he must appear evil, but also sympathetic. Their love affair is the heart of the film; their sex scenes were widely discussed, but I thought they were tame compared to what I'd heard; it's the love that grows within Wong, that is truly painful. She knows that ultimately Yee must be killed for the good of her country, yet she falls in love with him anyways; and it betrays her better judgment.

Maybe this film will be a little less painful, if you don't expect a happy ending. I applaud films that don't paint the world as a perfect place, and this is how it ended for a lot of people during this turbulent time in history. But after all I had gone through with Wong and her group of supporters it was traumatic; obviously this is the point, it's a powerful ending and I'd never ask them to change it.

Lust, Caution might be Ang Lee's most brilliant film; it's nearly flawlessly captured from the smallest detail to the grand design. They could have sped the story up a bit, I did grow bored at times, but I think that Lee really wants you to live with these characters, feel their excitement, disappointments and pain. It's not the most pleasant experience to sit through, but it's worth going back over the film in your head after it's over. - Grade: B