Conrad-23

This show is very different from other makeovers shows that have been popping up all over the place right now...it's really good. The five gay hosts are funny, intelligent, self-deprecative and very good at what they're doing. The makeovers they've pulled off on some really slobby guys are pretty damn good I must say, and being a straight guy I enjoy the tips at the end, because let's face it, most gay men know a thing or two about style, grooming, the right wine, great design and schmoozing the crowd...and I'm very glad to see a show like this right now, it's different, it's entertaining, it's informative and it's a lot better than the bland same old makeover shows (which are almost always geared towards women and female makeovers)...hello! Men need help sometimes too, and this show is here to help...and I think it's awesome, in fact, I've already learned a thing or two just from seeing two episodes.

I've seen the movie and I've read the book, and I must say that the

film does portray the events as they really happened, ofcourse the

time frame is utterly shortened to a mere two hours, when in reality

these people left on that plane for a rugby game in early October

and weren't found until two days before Christmas. I think that the

actors who portrayed the people did them justice. Ethan Hawke,

Josh Hamiltion, Illeana Douglas, Vincent Spano, and the

countless other actors portrayed their true life characters extremely

accurately.

The plane crash, as has been mentioned previously, is extremely

frightening and gruesome, and it all really happened, every last

terrifying second. People can mock this film all they want, but

that's only because they haven't read the book from cover to cover.

You MUST read the book in order to understand why all of these

people are the way they are and each of their individual

circumstances. Believe me, the movie will come across much

more clearly. The cannibalism in this movie was done on the

lighter aspect, believe me, because in reality they were forced to

devour everything from the genitals to the bone marrow. This is

real survival people, and if you can't handle it, then I wouldn't

suggest this movie. If you are intrigued by the human dynamics

and personal struggles that come with the onthrust of survival,

than this is definitely a movie to watch.

The book does provide a much more detailed description of the

entire 72 day ordeal, particularly parts that the movie skips over but

eludes to. It's EXTREMELY sad and even more disheartening to

learn that their own families back home couldn't handle the fact

that the survivors were forced to eat their beloved friends and

come just short of eating their own family members who perished,

in order to survive. The movie did the situation justice, and it also

really makes you think about taking a flight over a mountain range

or the ocean. It does even more than that though, it makes you

think about what you would do yourself if you were in their shoes,

and how would your family members and friends act. This is a

very good movie for those who can handle it....and I'm telling you,

READ the book--and you won't be bored with the film.

This film is so beautiful, and so very sad. I cried during this movie, not just because of the subject matter, but also for the fact that this movie is actually true; and the truth is what makes it so sad. After seeing how these people in this hospital, in the Bronx, who suffered from this terrible disease were only able to "live" almost their entire lives' in the brief summer of 1969, I seriously thought about my life and just how fragile it is. When the character Lucy says, "I know it's not 1926, I just need it to be," and how she's living in a 69 year old body, with only the life experience of a 22 year old; my heart just aches. How sad it must be to go into a comatose state at 22 during the Roaring Twenties and wake up at the end of the Age of Aquarius in an elderly body, with no memory of the years in between. I'm so glad this movie was made, and made so well. Bravo Penny Marshall.

Robert DeNiro is amazing in this film. Leonard's story is so particularly poignant because he fell under this illness as a child, "waking up" at middle age, having never experienced his teens or young adulthood, and more importantly, true love (which he begins to experience through his child-like curiosity with Paula (Penelope Ann Miller-who is also excellent)). This may be a spoiler so beware--but when Leonard has to accept that his "awakening" is coming to an end and he has his last dance with Paula, I was in tears. The relationship between Leonard and his mother is also very emotional. She's spent her life taking care of her invalid son, never knowing if he can hear or see her. The way Robert DeNiro portrayed his character's rapid maturity (which he never got to experience in real time), is so superb that he deserved that Oscar nomination 100%. Robin Williams is also outstanding, keeping his usually exuberant sense of humor subdued to play Dr. Malcolm Sayer. You can feel his sense of confusion at trying to get the hospital administration to allow him to try this experimental medication on these patients. It's heartbreaking when he has to finally say goodbye to Leonard, who has a difficult time dealing with the rapid progression of the disease at the end of the summer after the medication is no longer effective. All of the characters in this film were cast perfectly, from Nurse Eleanore to Mrs. Lowe and all of the patients. I would recommend this film to EVERYONE! It captures that lost time period perfectly, and you can actually feel how much these people want to live the lives they were so cruelly cheated out of. If you keep in mind that this really happened in 1969, you'll think about how delicate and immensely important life is.

I first saw "Halloween" as a child and it scared the kudos out of me. As an adult, I've bought it and watch it every year around Halloween ( I don't like the edited version, I like to see the whole movie in it's entirety.) I don't care what anyone says about this film, it has definitely stood the test of time and is still scaring the kudos out of children (and adults) today. I love the characters in this movie too, they are all realistic and they play out their scenes very fluidly and true to life, which is what makes this film so eerie, it's so very realistic (except for a killer that won't die, but what do you expect from a horror film?) Jamie Lee Curtis is the ideal actress for Laurie Strode, very intelligent and a fun babysitter, but kind of shy and sort of a door-mat until the time comes to fight off a knife-welding serial killer (woo-hoo!) I really liked P.J. Soles character, aside from the fact that she's cute she can play the ditzy cheerleader VERY well without making her look stupid and totally cliched, Soles is a great actress and was the perfect one to pull it off...TOTALLY! Nancy Loomis plays the smart-aleck Annie to a T, very believable-I really like her line, "Oh great! I've got three choices: Watch the kids sleep, listen to Lynda screw around or talk to you."

Dr. Loomis is also a very believable character, searching frantically to find Michael Meyers. The setting was so well done that until recently I had no idea it was actually filmed in California in the springtime, it totally looks like an Illinois town in October. No matter how many times I see this movie I still get that "Halloween/Fall time" feeling which makes the movie very eerie (things dying and everything's cold.) The houses used in this movie for the Doyle House and Wallace House are absolutely perfect, that Wallace House at night is scary as hell! Michael's mask is pure genius, hard to believe it's actually a William Shatner mask, the gleaming white glows eerily in the dark, and it's instantly recognizable as the Michael Meyer's Mask.

(SPOILERS AHEAD!!)....... The scenes that have the greatest impact on me personally are when Michael attacks Marion Chambers in the car at the beginning, when Michael murders Lynda while Laurie's on the other end of the phone listening to it thinking it's a joke; when Laurie discovers Annie, Lynda and Bob in the Wallace house all the way up to where she's trying to get Tommy to open the front door at the Doyle House with Michael crossing the street and the Wallace House in the background (very tense moments!); and the infamous closet scene (particulary where Michael's mask is visible just as the closet light comes on) which shows excellent cinematography on such a small budget. The music of course sets the entire mood and is synonymous with Halloween, I can recognize it instantly and it makes my pulse pound just listening to it. I definitely think this film has stood the test of time and I recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it yet, watch it on Halloween alone if you really want the full impact. Very believable characters, very believable plot, and a very believable killer.

The Big Chill is one of those films that anyone who had a group of friends and aspirations from youth can easily relate to and better yet, enjoy! The 8 characters in this film are extremely well-developed and all have equal and individual importance to the group as a whole. The story is about 8 friends who went to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor during the late 60's. All came from affluent families (this is told by Hurt's character in the film, and helps to explain as to why all of the friends have such successful, yet emotionally unfullfilling careers). They are reunited years later for the funeral of Alex

played by Kevin Costner, but his acting scenes were deleted), who was considered the best out of the group, but ended his own life in despair. Sarah (Close) and Harold (Kline) Cooper; now a doctor and businessman respectively, house their friends for the weekend following the funeral. It is this weekend where all of the friends discover how much they need one another and start to mourn their lost ideals from youth. Meg (Place) is now an attorney; Sam (Berenger) is now a popular TV actor (kind of a Tom Selleck as "Magnum P.I."); Karen (Williams) is now an upper-class mother and housewife catering to her cold husband Richard (Galloway); Nick (Hurt) is a former radio psychologist now involved in transporting illegal narcotics and following in Alex's footsteps; and Michael (Goldblum) is now a writer for People Magazine. Chloe (Tilly) is the younger character who was Alex's last girlfriend and serves to represent the tangible being of what was Alex. The other characters see in her not only the youth that they mourn and remember from college (naiveness, a carefree lifestyle, "flexability", etc) but also one of Alex's last attempts at feeling young again (he was much older than her). The musical score is superb and correlates with the drama of each scene perfectly. The opening sequence where each character is learning of Alex's death and traveling to the funeral to the tune of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" is not only outstanding , but also ingenious in that

it provides the audience a small glimpse into each character's settings in which they all believed they were emotionally happy. The most famous scene from the film is most likely where the characters dance to "Ain't To Proud to Beg" while cleaning the kitchen after dinner. The symbolism is outstanding in this movie. There are so many levels of symbolism that I cannot even begin to count them all. The cast is superb, all of the actors deserve equal praise. This movie is definitely one of the best to come out of the 80's and goes to show the importance that friends have in a person's life

This film, without a doubt, is the best dramatic film I have ever seen. It is truly an extraordinary film of humanity. To start out, the film begins in complete silence and gently flows into Pachalbel's "Canon in D". It has become my favorite movie and I can say with 100% certainty that it deserved every Oscar it received. I cannot truly articulate with words what this movie did to me when I first saw it. I had an epiphany-like experience. I was born in 1980 and didn't see this film until shortly after I turned 19. The events portrayed by Timothy Hutton, Mary Tyler Moore, Donald Sutherland, Judd Hirsch, Elizabeth McGovern, Dinah Manoff, and Fredric Lehne are just as powerful and relevant in society today as they were 20 years ago. Timothy Hutton's performance of Conrad Jarrett, an 18 yr-old suffering from depression after the tragic death of his older brother is extraordinary. Being the age Hutton was when he made the film, when I first saw it twenty years later, I related to the emotions on every note. Teenagers are rarely portrayed in film as realistically as in real life. In my opinion, Conrad Jarrett in "Ordinary People" is the best portrayal on film of a teenage boy going through the good times and the bad, but mostly the bad. Timothy Hutton is a truly amazing actor. Mary Tyler Moore also deserved all of the praise and nomination for a role that is literally the opposite of anything she had ever played before. The way she portrayed the cold, cruel, yet emotionally-hidden Beth Jarrett is outstanding. Donald Sutherland and Judd Hirsch also gave performances that made them truly believable as Calvin Jarrett and Dr. Berger. Sutherland should have received an Oscar nomination. Elizabeth McGovern and Dinah Manoff's small character roles as Jeannine Pratt and Karen are just as vivid as in the novel. Jeannine provides the excellent uplift in the story; while Karen provides the semblance of reality that things are not as they seem. Every line and every scene in this film is as detrimental to the overall underlying theme as it is in the novel by Judith Guest. The words "I love you" and "love" have an immense importance in this film. Kudos to Robert Redford, who shows that he is not only an excellent actor, but also a truly excellent director. The color scheme, music scheme, setting in Lake Forest, Illinois and that "perfect" home all provide the exact backdrop to the circumstances going on between these characters and within Conrad himself. This film relies solely on the realistic interaction between "ordinary" people living through "extraordinary" circumstances. This film had an amazing impact on me and I'm sure it will do the same for anyone else who sees it. If you do not leave this film having gained that underlying insight that this film gives, then you did not truly understand the purpose of the film. You don't have to suffer from depression or go through the loss of a loved one to understand the message delivered by this film. It's definitely more than just a "tissue" movie. Truly one of the best films ever made.

A 10 out of 10.