Caroseli

While there are a number of good points about the film "Don King: Only in America"--the script, the direction, the supporting cast--by far the best reason to watch it is Ving Rhames' stunning performance as Don King. Ironically, although King is an extremely gregarious personality, Rhames' performance wins through its subtlety. Through the slightest gestures and facial expressions, Rhames paints a portrait of a man who is both repellent and compelling. The best touch of genius in the script comes in the scenes when Rhames as King comments upon the actions and events depicted in the regular film, actually "talking back" to the camera, filmmakers and audience. (At one point, he even calls HBO hypocrites.) I have never cared much for boxing, but there is no denying Don King is one of the most influential and colorful personalities of our century, and this film gives us an insight into his life we would did not have previously.

While "Rasputin" tends to drag a little in some parts, it is definitely worth a look for the performances of Ian McKellen, who lends a subtle but breathtaking elegance to Czar Nicholas II, and especially Alan Rickman, who plays the role of Rasputin to the hilt. It is also an incredibly gorgeous (and historically accurate) portrayal of pre-revolution Russia, which could be very valuable to history teachers. Given how little Americans in general know about Russian history, a film such as this could interest quite a few people into reading up on the subject.

Although this is an all-around good movie, two things really stand out in my mind. The first is Haskell Wexler's cinematography, which makes the camera seem like a fifth, silent character in the film, giving the audience the impression of "sitting in" on this cramped, hellish cocktail party. The second is the dialogue. Most of us have had the misfortune of knowing a couple like this (a few have maybe even been IN a couple like this), but the dialogue in this movie makes these characters come alive. While this is definitely a very funny, very sad film, the highest praise I can pay it is that it is in some moments difficult to watch, as it is almost TOO tense.

This is easily one of Hitchcock's best. It was particularly disturbing for me, as I was a decidedly lower-middle class kid who went to a VERY upper class high school, and I could see the idle richness of my classmates in Robert Walker's bored, detached playboy. This is definitely one of the high points of film-noir.

Although "No Way Out" looks a little dated in comparison to more recent racial dramas, such as "Mississippi Burning," "No Way Out" is still a very tense DRAMA. Poitier (in his first film role) gives a truly break-out performance, but it's Widmark who really steals the show. The riot scenes are beautifully choreographed, lending serious mood to the action.

This is easily Hitchcock's most underrated film, although at the time it won Best Picture. Although Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine both turn in great performances, Judith Anderson steals every scene she is in as the psychotic housekeeper, and the plot turn in the middle is one of the best I've ever seen.

Although the original controversy over this film was about the First Amendment and the "real" Larry Flynt, to me, the more interesting aspect of the film was the love story between Larry and Althea Flynt. Forman's genius has always been finding human elements in tales of rebels who changed the world -- "Amadeus," for example, is more interesting as a saga of the jealousy of Salieri than as musical biography. "The People Vs. Larry Flynt" is gaudy where "Amadeus" was gorgeous (compare the long shot through Flynt's mansion with the shots of Viennese palaces in the other film), and Larry and Althea's love story is at once timeless and a product of the self-indulgent, tragic 70s and 80s, and Harrelson and Love turn in two of the best performances of the decade.

Far from being a familiar cops and robbers movie, "Heat" is a story of two men's obsessions with being the best at what they do, and the price each one pays for it. Although there are scenes which tend to drag a little bit, there isn't a character, sub-plot or relationship in the film which is even remotely boring, which is much more than I can say about more traditional "epic love stories." Visually, also, the film is a treat--every shot and every set comes to life in the eye of Dante Spinotti's camera.

In a decade pathetically short of great comedies, this is one of the few stand-outs. While many critics and users have commented on the film's existentialism and intelligence, the truth is it is also genuinely laugh-out-loud funny, something many intelligent dark comedies can't seem to manage. Although Bill Murray is almost always good in supporting roles, his lead roles have been notoriously uneven ("Ghostbusters" and "Stripes" vs. "Quick Change" and "The Man Who Knew Too Little"). This, however, is clearly one of his greatest roles, and he obviously has fun playing it. Best of all, the film is truly original (ironically, a film about repetitiveness is different from anything else you've ever seen). Although it has been mostly overlooked in its own time, there is no doubt in my mind that, years from now, this will be recognized as one of the great films of the decade, if not the century.

This is one of a series of movies collecting several Warner Bros. cartoons with a wrap-around story. In this one, the cartoons all involve supernatural or horror elements. Of those collected, the best is "Punch Trunk" (a Chuck Jones classic!) in which a tiny elephant is spotted all over town. Also good is the new short created for the film, "The Duxorcist," in which Daffy Duck tries to exorcise a gorgeous client. The wrap-around sequences, however, are less interesting and don't provide the anarchy and big laughs of the Warner Bros. classics.

"Lifeboat," one of Hitchcock's more overlooked films, doesn't have the intricate plotting of his more famous films such as "Psycho" and "Strangers on a Train." Instead, this is a character piece, in which nine survivors of a shipwreck, including one of the Nazis whose torpedoes sunk the ship, are left on a lifeboat. While a film with one setting, nine characters and very little plot might sound boring, the personalities and motivations of the characters, particularly Willy the Nazi, are intriguing enough to make this a very engrossing film.

When we speak of the American frontier, we often forget that, before it was the deserts of New Mexico or Arizona, it was the forests of Pennsylvania and upstate New York. This film is an American Revolution story of that frontier. It has often been overlooked in American film history, probably because it came out in the same year as another historical epic, "Gone with the Wind." Personally, however, I think this is a better film with better characters, a more interesting plot and more action, even if it's not quite as visually stunning as GwtW.