heyhamilton

I won't go into major detail about it, but this American version cops out so heavily on what could have been a half-decent remake. The original has all the integrity and unpredictability that the story deserves, and this versions throws these virtues out the window for the obligatory Hollywood happy ending that really sucks. If you watch the original, you'll get something as bleak and chilling as Se7en or Memento. With this remake, you get a cheap thriller better compared to The Glass House or Joy Ride. So it depends what you want. Saving the ozone layer is a good idea.

I really enjoyed Purple Noon. Atmospherically, it is almost perfect. The irony of beautiful, sun-drenched Italy against all the inner coldness of Tom Ripley is simply superb. I have also seen the more recent American version with Matt Damon as Ripley, and if the story interests you, then both versions are worth seeing. Purple Noon sticks much more explicitly to the novel in the sense that Ripley is portrayed in a more sinister, calculating way. The American version seeks to make Ripley a more accessible, humanistic person that the audience might sympathize with. Both of these formulas have advantages and disadvantages. Purple Noon's Ripley is often more ostensibly fascinating precisely because he is so cold and amoral. It arouses the same kind of twisted attraction as a Hannibal Lector, for example. However, the supporting cast, like the novel itself, are not so much characters as plot devices. They are not very well fleshed-out, and can seem a bit cardboard at times. On the flipside, the Ripley portrayed by Matt Damon may lose some of his excitement because he is presented in more human terms, but his ambiguity works in the sense that Ripley never has a sense of self, and is only happy and interesting when he is in someone else's shoes. The American version also has an amazing supporting cast, whose characters are done the justice that they deserve. Luckily, I found the core story so appealing that I enjoyed the novel and both film versions.

This is a very unique and captivating film. But there is too much red and black. It's making me nervous. Though I'm sure that this color combination has some significance (love and death, are they intertwined?), it still makes me nervous. I love the incoherence of it all, and the way people's names and identities shift endlessly, just the way dreams do. I also really love the sequence in club silencio. It helps the viewer to keep in mind that it is ALL an illusion. Justin Theroux was great, just like he was as Bryce in American Psycho. I, for one, also thought the Cowboy was way too cool. David Lynch's best work, hands down. This whole movie is far creepier than even Dennis Hopper singing Candy Colored Clown. Check it out, but beware of red and black.

This is a wonderful slice of pornographic ecstasy. Pamela Jennings, perhaps the most underrated of big-breasted eighties porn starlets, is on full display in this masterpiece. There are lots of big melons about, but few look as tasty as hers. Watch Sizzling Suburbia for another great Pam performance, and Traci Lords as well. Big Melons, what an eloquent way of stating the obvious, an obvious statement, really. Open the hood of a car, and it will tell you something about the people who made it. Well, I can't disagree. I'll see you all in hell.

It was Patrick Bateman's favorite movie, so of course it is one of mine. I haven't rented it 37 times yet, but I'm working on it. The power driller scene is, of course, my favorite. And I think the sadistic Indian serves as one of the most unforgettable villains of modern-day cinema. His wardrobe was also excellent. Though I need at least two Halcion to make it through this movie in one sitting, I still think it's as close to Hitchcock as DePalma will ever get. Also, look out for a small cameo appearance by porn legend Cara Lott. She'll care a lot. Trust me. It's a mysterious but playful little role. You'll love it.

Everyone knows that this is one of the most innovative films of the last several decades. Everyone knows that the dialogue is great, and that the non-linear narrative structure is unique and ground-breaking. And as much attention as Travolta and Samuel L. get, which is deserved, I must say that Christopher Walken's scene in the movie is my favorite. I would go so far as to say that I think it is the best monologue in history. Sorry Shakespeare, not even "to be or not to be" could ever be as perfect as Captain Koons' story of the Gold Watch. Anyone who doesn't agree should be shaved and sterilized. Is that Edward Towers?

The thing I love about this movie is that it's basically an updated version of a Western. The whole cast is awesome, and I love a movie where everyone is a bad guy. There really isn't a single morally righteous person in the film, and the protagonists are the closest ones, even though they are kidnappers, murderers, and career criminals.

Did anyone else happen to catch the fact that the protagonist's names are Parker and Longbaugh? Those are Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid's real names in that film. And, like Butch and Sundance, Ryan Phillippe and Benicio Del Toro's characters are likeable criminals. You want them to get away with the money, particularly because their adversaries are nastier, despite their surface-level appearances.

The plot was twisty and intricate, and I thought Ryan, Benicio, and James Caan were particularly amazing in their roles. For someone so known as a pretty boy, Ryan Phillippe really convinced me that he was as hostile and ruthless a thug as he was meant to be in this film. Benicio complemented him perfectly with his sly, mysterious, and wisecracking aloofness. James Caan is James Caan. If you've seen the Godfather, I don't have to tell you what he is capable of.

I like this movie because it is very much a "guy" movie, with all the violence and gunplay, but the plot is so much more detailed than anything Jerry Bruckheimer would ever dream of producing. You don't know what lurks around the corner, and there is no love story aspect. It's gritty, realistic, and at parts (the Caeserian section comes to mind) downright gruesome. But if you like to think and watch guys shoot at each other, I can't recommend a movie more highly than this one.

WARNING: SPOILERS CONTAINED!!!!!!!!!!!!



I was really impressed by the acting and overall characterization in the film. Nick Stahl's Bobby Kent is one of the most complicated and evil characters I've seen in cinema since Malcolm McDowell's Alex De Large in A Clockwork Orange. He is disturbing not only because he bullies Brad Renfro's Marty, but because he has a strange homoerotic attraction to him. He alternates evenly between humiliating and beating Marty and telling him repeatedly that "you're my best friend." He forces Marty to dance for gay men to make money, and make homemade tapes of him masturbating to sell to porno shops. He even taunts Marty about underlying homoeroticism, saying things like,"you know you like d**k." The audience feels the hatred for Bobby that Marty and his friends do, and I found myself wanting them to go through with their plot to kill him.

IF YOU DON'T WANT THE ENDING RUINED, STOP READING NOW!!!!!!!

When the murder actually occurs, though, the audience is presented with an interesting moral dilemma. Bobby's murder is quite gruesome, and you can feel his desparation in trying to stay alive. That made me realize that this person, who really is horrible, is still a person with a right to life. Though I do think he should at least have been thoroughly beaten because he is the type of character who will only learn his lesson when it is forced upon him. Right or wrong, I didn't really blame Marty and Co. for killing him. I merely felt sorry for them because they are all so painfully stupid and naive about what they were doing and how to handle it. I can see why people might disagree with my viewpoint, but I think that is the point of this film. It makes you the audience evaluate what you would have done if you were in the shoes of these characters.

Though I had a hunch that this would be a pretty dramatic movie, I didn't know what it was about, and therefore couldn't have prepared myself for just how moving it is. In The Bedroom is by far the most realistic and heartfelt movie I have ever seen. Todd Field's direction is the perfect combination of grace and simplicity. The story really forces the audience to examine their feelings about violence and other very serious issues, and the ending dumps everything in your lap for you to sort through. I really appreciate that, though. The beauty about this film is the honest way it goes about stirring emotion. It is not decorated with an overly poignant score to trick you into feeling for the characters. If you cry, it is for the amazing believability of the actors and the raw and realistic emotion conflicts they suffer from. Field also does an amazing job of avoiding cliches in regard to the suspense that sometimes builds in the story. It is not overdramatized or forshadowed by the score. I actually found the film so emotionally shocking and raw that I couldn't feel all of it as I watched, but half an hour after the movie was over, I just burst into tears. The most beautifully tragic film I have ever seen. I highly recommend it to anyone who appreciates films as more than light entertainment.

Anthony Minghella's film adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel is amazing. In the novel, you get a much more specific sense of who Ripley is, because as Highsmith said, she felt as though Ripley stole the typewriter and wrote the story. The novel is interesting if you want more specifics about Ripley's character. But I personally enjoy the way Minghella's screenplay seeks to make Ripley seem more likeable and normal at the beginning of the film. This is in direct contrast to the novel, in which he is immediately presented as being a scheming, untrustworthy person. The film allows the audience, at least at the beginning, to sympathize with Ripley and put themselves in his shoes. I also think that the vague and rather empty quality of Matt Damon's Ripley is more appropriate since Ripley is supposed to be someone who is uninteresting and never really himself.

More impressive even is the way Minghella rescues all of the other roles from the completely flat and colorless descriptions of them in the novel. Dickie and particularly Marge and Freddy Miles are virtually expendable in the novel. Only Dickie is given halfway decent treatment because of the way the novel shows Ripley emulating every aspect of Dickie's mannerisms. But the novel, unlike the film, doesn't provide the audience with a reason to feel like Ripley in their admiration of Dickie. The film makes Dickie clearly the center of attention and the charasmatic character that the audience, as well as Ripley, would admire and even wish they could be like. Jude Law's Dickie is attractive, exciting, and more appealing than Ripley in every way. The nuances added to his character not only in the screenplay but by Law's superb acting add an incredible dimension to the film.

Likewise with the other supporting actors and their respective characters. Gwyneth Paltrow's Marge is more intelligent and far more sympathetic than the character in the novel. And Philip Seymour Hoffman bestows not only the arrogant elitism of Freddy Miles, but the sense that he innately knows that there's something disturbing about Ripley.

Another very important and very big change was the addition of Cate Blanchett's Meredith Logue. This character doesn't exist in the novel, and Cate's performance in this role is a scene stealer amongst many scene stealers. The role adds depth and irony to the story, and Cate Blanchett invests such an amazing life to this character with only a few pivotal scenes.

As for the film's much-complained-about length, remember that patience is a virtue. Not every film is so simple that an hour and a half is sufficient to tell a story. Most of my favorite films are as long as Ripley or longer. It is well worth taking the two hours and twenty minutes to watch this film

Probably the best adult film I've ever seen. Enjoyable from cover to cover, particularly the last scene, which serves as the climax of the storyline(no pun intended.) A detective noir in the tradition of The Big Sleep and The Maltese Falcon, Peter North's Detective Mickey Price harks back to the glory days of private dicks. On this odyssey he undertakes, he crosses paths with the classic cool blonde(Jenna Jameson, shining like a combination of Lauren Bacall and Grace Kelly), a fortune teller, two female homosexual lovers, and a host of other kooky characters. I'm not going to give the twist ending away, but as a hint, think of recent film noirs like Memento and The Usual Suspects. Enjoy.

This is my favorite horror movie ever for many reasons that should be obvious to anyone who has ever seen this. Low budget it may be, it shows that even without lots of money, special effects of incredible quality can be produced.

The opening sequence is one of my favorites. A woman is in the kitchen cooking as her husband and young son are upstairs preparing for their day. You don't actually see anything, but you just feel the evil entering the room. Then you hear a shriek, and father and son come running down the stairs. The woman is nowhere to be found, but the oven is shaking violently. Where could she be? So, of course, Daddy opens the oven to discover a skeleton inside it. Amazing how an oven, in a matter of seconds, can completely burn all the flesh, skin, hair, etc. off a full-grown person. This sets the tone for the overzealous cheese and idiocy that will follow.

So years after this, cheesy hair band Thor inhabits the farmhouse where the aformentioned atrocity happened, planning to rehearse and record their new album. Actually, I do like some of Thor's music. (Their early work was a little too new wave for my taste, but with the music featured in this movie, I think they really came into their own.)

I have to keep my comments brief, for two reasons: First, it would be a violation of any new viewer's rights if I gave away the incredible twist ending of the film (and it is a film, not just a movie. Second, I have to return some videotapes.

The film is like one great music video. The music really enhances the experience of the violence, horror and general treachery displayed on the screen. Not to mention the special effects that were decades ahead of everyone else (to say the least, the special effects industry as a whole probably won't reach this level of creativity and technical skill until at least 2015).

But enough of my yapping. Don't take my word for it. See this brilliant film yourself. But beware, you may never be the same afterward.