Sabrina -- 1995 -- PG

Watched this remake of the 1954 film of the same name the other day, and it remains as amusing and well-crafted as it was then.

The clever little plot follows a girl names Sabrina who is the daughter of the chauffeur and lives with her father over the garage. She has a crush on the younger of the Larrabee brothers, David, her entire young life, but during an excursion to Paris David gets engaged to the daughter of a big time business owner with which the older brother, Linus, is making a business deal. When David takes a liking to Sabrina all grown up, Linus takes it upon himself to engage Sabrina until David falls for his fiancee again.

I really don't have anything detrimental to say about this movie, if anyone cares to believe that. The major character were well-rounded and given pasts to relate to. The plot was left free of holes as everything ties up rather nicely and it has some decent, yet predictable, twists. It does have that air of nuisance in that the characters are given cushy lifestyles so that they can do whatever they want throughout the film, however that's more of a pet peeve than a complaint on the film.

This is a standard fare chick flick that delivers a better than average film.

While You Were Sleeping -- 1995 -- PG

Well, one can't say my viewing experiences aren't well rounded as my wife regularly has me watching chick flicks with her. This time, the film of choice was about a woman who finds a man she has never spoken to to be her dream guy. Day after day, he comes through her line and on Christmas, he talks to her. Now don't get excited, he says, "Merry Christmas," but shortly thereafter, he is mugged and pushed on the train tracks.

The second act follows the guy in a coma, and the girl meeting his family and being mistaken for his fiancee. And a lot of meetings there are. She finds his extensive family to be a welcome change to her life of solitude, and plays along because she vlaues them and is also told by someone who finds out that revealing the truth might be harmful to them. And in a clear cut, 3 act movie way, the third act kicks off once all of this has occurred to him waking from his coma and everything coming out.

Simplicity is always the redeeming factor in these types of movies and simplicity is in full force here as well. This allows the characters to benefit from being normal people and letting the audience fill out the norm of their characters after they give you specifics. It makes them a bit more relatable than someone fully unique. Then again, these types of movies kind of allow a bit of vicarious living through them as well, but I digress.

It's a cute film that has a shred of uniqueness to it and allows a good viewing experience.

Desperado -- 1995 -- R

When Robert Rodriguez made El Mariachi, he was thinking about a video release, and then doing a sequel to it with a bigger budget. Well, El Mariachi got a wide release, and this sequel does have a bigger budget...a lot bigger. Desperado is "El Mariachi 2" and now we have a star cast, Hollywood equipment, and RR still calling all the shots.

We pick up many years after the end of El Mariachi with the mariachi (he isn't given a name) hunting down a drug lord called Bucho. He has become a man with a haunted past, and the source of the legend of "the guitar player", who is a guy who carries his weapons around in a guitar case. He holds this Bucho personally responsible for the death of his girl, Domino, and blowing a hole through his hand. This relationship from Bucho to Moco from the first film is never really explained, but we're supposed to go with it. While on this quest, he runs across another girl who takes him in after he saves her life. There's a romance there, and lots of shootouts, with a final conclusion to the whole thing including a bit of a twist.

Most of the film is action. Like the first one, this is an action film with some character development, but most of the focus is on the running and shooting. Given the simplicity of the overall plot, there's not much in the way of problems with it. Guy walks into a bar and kills everyone. Simple as that.

One thing I wanted to know that was never explained is the mariachi's relationship with the narrator guy at the beginning. It is established they know each other somehow and they're friends, but it never goes into their history on how they got to know each other. I would have liked to know that.

I will say that some of the dialogue sequences run painfully long, especially Quinten Tarantino's joke. It was long, and I had trouble figuring out what it had to do with the plot. It seems slowing down an action movie for something like this doesn't work so well.

So, like the first, this wasn't a bad movie. It was all action, chase, and shooting...and shooting and shooting and shooting and shooting, and did I mention shooting. I did get tired of shootouts here. Other than that, it worked pretty well.

As an added note, one of the two guys in the guitar-gun sequence is Carlos Gallardo, the original Mariachi from the first film. I recognized him immediately. Kinda neat.

The Usual Suspects -- 1995 -- R

Ah, another one of our top 250 movies of all time finds its way to my player. This one is in the top 20 on that list, and it was definitely a great ride of a film.

The plot involves a guy who was on the dock when a ship exploded and who was part of a drug heist on this boat. He is taken into custody and given amnesty by the government, but one cop wants to know from this guy what really happened out there, and it all started back when a truck was jacked with weapons' parts and the cops rounded up this group who were apparently their usual suspects. While in their overnight incarceration, they decided to do another quick job for some quick cash and to make a point to the NYPD. After that, they do another and then a final one leading to the boat incident. Behind the final one is a mysterious crime lord that no one has ever seen...

This one unfolded little by little with reversals all over the place just making things more complicated. Any holes in the plot you think you spot are cleared up by the end in a masterful way.

The characters are pretty clever, though it is clear who the main characters of the five are since they are more clearly developed that the smaller roles. With only 5 characters, you would think they would have constructed everyone about the same (at least in the flashback). As is, the main two are memorable, while the other three are pretty interchangable.

This is a great flick with a twist at the end that makes the whole thing work so well. It's one of those twists that serves to tie it all together and make it a perfectly cohesive work. Good stuff.