AWN Blogs

This film quickly moved into third place on my top ten list after watching what I feel is David Lynch's best "dream state" movie yet. Personally ELEPHANT MAN will always be my favorite from him, but this is a very close second. For creative people, this is one of those films that really gets the creative juices flowing, because it's working outside convention at every step and inspires with its creativity.

Rita (Laura Elena Harring, THE FORBIDDEN DANCE) escapes her own murder by driving her car off the windy roads on Mulholland Dr. The crash leaves her with no memories. She finds her way to an abandoned apartment where she meets Betty (Naomi Watts, DANGEROUS BEAUTY), a fledgling actress literally straight off the bus. They travel around L.A. trying to discover Rita's identity. The twisted tale involves a famous director, mobsters, a cowboy and an actress named Camilla Rhodes (Melissa George, DARK CITY).

This cult film is so freakin' cool. It's John Carpenter's first full-fledged theatrical feature, which he produced soon after film school and right before HALLOWEEN. The plot is simple; a small group of cops and convicts get surrounded by a multi-racial bloodthirsty gang in an abandoned police station.

Inspired by John Ford's RIO BRAVO, attacking Indians are replaced with gang members. After cops kill six members of their gang, the Street Thunder leaders make a pact to wage war on the cops and citizen of Los Angeles. It's New Year's Eve and only a skeleton crew is working Precinct 9, Division 13 station, which is set to close. Newly promoted Lt. Ethan Bishop (Austin Stoker, TV's ROOTS) is given the glamorous duty of babysitting the station over the holiday. His only company is officer Chaney (Henry Brandon, THE SEARCHERS) and secretaries Leigh (Laurie Zimmer) and Julie (Nancy Loomis, HALLOWEEN). Meanwhile, officer Starker (Charles Cyphers, COMING HOME) is transferring three prisoners to a new prison when one gets violently sick. So he orders the bus to stop at Bishop's station. One of those prisoners happens to be notorious killer Napoleon Wilson (Darwin Joston, THE FOG). As the gang lays siege on the jail, cops must team with criminals to saves their lives.

Right now there is a renaissance of sorts going on in Iran. As the country becomes more liberal and moves closer to democracy, art is peaking, especially film. Some of the most successful films of late at international film fests have been Iranian. Majid Majidi, director of this film, was nominated for an Oscar for his CHILDREN OF HEAVEN in 1998, the only Iranian filmmaker to ever receive an Academy Award nod. For COLOR OF PARADISE, the simple story about a blind boy and his family is so tender and absorbing that it grips you from the first frame to the last.

The widowed father is searching for a new wife from a rich family and wants a way of "ridding" himself of the burden of his blind eight-year-old son. Mohammad (Mohsen Ramezani), the blind boy, is full of life and likes learning at the school for the blind the same things seeing children learn. Mohammad is not completely unloved, cared for by his grandmother (Salameh Feyzi), his older sister (Farahnaz Safari) and younger sister (Elham Sharifi). His father Hashem (Hossein Mahjoub) finally finds the boy an apprenticeship with a blind carpenter. While the opportunity looks good for Hashem, he underestimates what his son can do, and more so doesn't care what he wants.

One of the most important things about making a great fantasy/sci-fi film is the creation of the world. That's why HARRY POTTER is so great. The world is rich and borrows a lot from various Greek myths and wizard and witch tales, but finds a way to make it feel refreshingly original.

The story begins with young Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) living under the stairs of his mean aunt and uncle's house. On a visit to the zoo, we learn that Harry has strange abilities that he does not understand. Then the owls arrive, carrying letters inviting Harry to come study at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. However, his uncle Vernon (Richard Griffiths, WITHNAIL & I) wants nothing to do with all this embarrassing witches and wizards hoopla. So the family runs to the countryside, but they can't hide from magic — arriving for Harry is the kind giant Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane, FROM HELL), who takes Harry into a marvelous world that exists in the shadows of the human world.

Pixar hasn't made a bad film yet (TOY STORY & A BUG'S LIFE). In my opinion MONSTERS INC. isn't as good as the TOY STORYs, but isn't too far behind. Directors Pete Docter, David Silverman and Lee Unkrich have taken the common childhood fear of monsters in the closet and created a wonderful world around the idea.

The story follows the life of Monsteropolis, where all the things that go bump in the night live. The monsters sneak into the human world through children's closets to collect kids' screams, the source of power in their world. Sulley (John Goodman, TV's ROSEANNE) is the top scarer, but his world goes haywire when he discovers a little human girl named Boo has wandered into the monster world after him. The monsters believe that the children will contaminate their land. So along with his best friend Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal, CITY SLICKERS) they try to keep the little one from Sulley's rival Randall Boggs (Steve Buscemi, DESPERADO), who would love nothing more than to humiliate the top scarer.

I saw this when I was a kid and just re-watched it. It's just as scary as I remember. It's a slow build, but it's totally worth the wait. The moments with the dog are terrifying. The main reason the film works is that anyone can relate to the situation. Everyone has had a mean looking, giant dog bark at them in an angry way. Take that situation and turn it up a million degrees and you get this film.

Donna Trenton (Dee Wallace, E.T.) has moved to a small town in Maine with her husband Vic (Daniel Hugh Kelly, TV's RYAN'S HOPE) and young son Tad (Danny Pintauro, TV's WHO'S THE BOSS?). She dreads her new situation, fearing that her life will be painfully boring. Tad has fears of the bogeyman lurking in his closet. While Vic is away on a business trip, Donna takes her Ford Pinto to the farm of Joe Camber (Ed Lauter, SEABISCUIT) for repairs. However, Joe has already been killed by his rabid dog Cujo. Now Donna and Tad find themselves under siege over a sweltering three-day period trapped in their now inoperable car without food and water.

If romantic comedies were more like this one, I'd have to re-think my general opinion of the genre. Director Blake Edwards, working from George Axelrod's Oscar-nominated adaptation of Truman Capote's novel, is witty and nuanced. Led by an effervescent performance from Audrey Hepburn, the film is light as air and still has meat on its bones.

The story follows the eccentric New York playgirl Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn, SABRINA) as she sets her sights on marrying a millionaire. She has Brazilian Jose da Silva Pereira (Jose Luis de Villalonga, DARLING) and American Rusty Trawler (Stanley Adams, TV's THE TWILIGHT ZONE) on short leashes, while she's getting paid $100 an hour to visit Sing Sing and talk to gangster Sally Tomato (Alan Reed, TV's THE FLINTSTONES). George Peppard (A-TEAM leader Hannibal Smith) plays Holly's new next-door neighbor, Paul Varjak, a writer who's being "sponsored" by a wealthy older woman named Mrs. Failenson (Patricia Neal, THE SUBJECT WAS ROSES), who is referred to throughout the film as 2-E.

FROM HELL, based on a graphic novel (i.e. a big fancy name for a big fancy comic book), follows London investigator Frederick Abberline (Johnny Depp, EDWARD SCISSORHANDS) as he tracks down Jack the Ripper. The plot is pretty much a standard thriller, but the direction and style make it something that I loved. The mood and look reminded me of Tim Burton's SLEEPY HOLLOW, which was another standard thriller that rose above its script because of its performances and design.

This flick was directed by the Hughes Brothers (MENACE II SOCIETY, DEAD PRESIDENTS) with the passion of two guys who have read every little fact and theory about Jack the Ripper. My favorite part of the film is its desire to be detailed about its era. It weaves in all the seedy and current events of 1888 England, including Buffalo Bill's Wild West Shows and John Merrick, the Elephant Man. The story also mixes "real life" characters and theories with literary influences — Abberline and Godley aren't far off from Holmes and Watson.

Considered by many as a comedy classic, I found it a bit dated. Film buffs might just want to check it out because of its place in history and others might just want to watch it for Veronica Lake. This slapstick film follows a movie director who is tired of making comedies and wants to make a social message film (which were very popular in the 1930s when this film was made). Due to his privileged life, he decides to head out into the world with 10 cents in his pocket to find trouble. However, the studio determines he's too valuable and sends a busload of people out after him to make sure that he doesn't get himself killed. His adventures often lead back to Hollywood and at the moment when he decides to give up is when he really learns about hardship. It is considered the film that justifies the existence of slapstick in general; making the point that laughter is all that some people have. If you like films with witty banter and people falling down a lot then this is a film for you.

• My opinion has changed on this one, check out my new thoughts in the Upon Further Review item.

This is a film for fans of director Kevin Smith. Taking the lowbrow MALLRATS approach, Smith crafts one big in-joke for film geeks. He spoofs his own movies as well as Hollywood in general. It's part road movie, part stoner flick, part action movie, and all comedy. How much you laugh really depends on you.

The film follows the adventures of Smith's dimwitted team of Jay and Silent Bob, played by Jason Mewes and Smith, respectively. Jason Lee's Banky Edwards from Smith's CHASING AMY shows up to tell the hetero life partners that the comic book he created based on them is being turned into a movie. So the twosome race across the country in an attempt to stop Miramax from making the film based on their comic book alter egos, Bluntman and Chronic. Their trip is a meandering one where they partner with four hot female animal rights activists into a monkey-kidnapping attempt. Justice (Shannon Elizabeth, AMERICAN PIE) has a soft spot for the duo, but her partners Sissy (Eliza Dushku, BRING IT ON), Chrissy (Ali Larter, LEGALLY BLONDE), and Missy (Jennifer Schwalbach aka Mrs. Kevin Smith) just want to play Jay and Bob for bigger idiots than they are.