The Exorcist -- 1973 -- R

Proclaimed the scariest movie of all time, the Exorcist has equally been called a journey of one man's faith. It involves a 12-year old girl who is possessed by a demon, completely throwing off the prognoses of doctors leading her mother to seek an exorcism through the help of a priest who is losing his faith following the death of his own mother. This movie is really creepy in some parts and downright bizarre in others. The prospect of such a thing actually occurring would be frightening. 

This is not a traditional scary movie in any sense of the word, but an opinion of how bad a demon possession can get. The demon (once it takes over) is quite vulgar in every way, but how many scary movies can you find where the line "The power of Christ compels you" is spoken at least a dozen times in perfect context?

Great characters for the most part with only the part of Burke Dennings getting the short end of the character stick despite the implied size of the role from the other characters. The chld knew him; the mom was sweet on him; but he died without speaking so much as a handful of lines and having very minimal screen time (most of it drunk during a party).

It's not for all horror hounds due its very dramatic aspects (a component lacking in a lot of horror), but overall, a good watch.

The English Patient -- 1996 -- R

This won best picture in 1996 over Evita. Talk about a slow burning fuse. It took forever for anything interesting to happen in this film, despite all the war stuff, and people getting blown up occasionally. The beginning was intriguing enough: plane shot out of sky with two people in it; one survives all burned up. Sure, want to know who they are. The film moves through two different plots: one for the guy with the burned up face before his face got burned up in the past, and the other for the nurse who is caring for him in the present (1944). Anytime you feel like checking the runtime on a movie, there is a pacing issue in my opinion. However, this is also the type of film to ensure all loose ends are tied up and somehow it leaves you with a satisfied feeling when it's all over. 

Another love triangle for the main storyline, it involves an illicit affair and how to (or not to) handle it. This time, both lovers are all over each other at the expense of the husband. Personally, this is never a plot I can get behind just because I don't think it's right, no matter how much you push the "meant for each other" envelope. I believe the decisions and promises you've made outweigh any "meant for each other" feelings you think you feel in the future. If you stick to your decisions and don't let lust carry you away, you will find you've been with who you were meant for already. So, bottom line: slow film, big drama, good drama, nice conflict, good story, but just not fond of "adultery is right" films.

Das Experiment -- 2001 -- R

See? Now this is the reality show I wanna see. Some scientists concoct an experiment in which they take some volunteers and assign some to be guards and some to be prisoners. The idea is to watch how the people react to each other in their assigned roles over a period of two weeks. The experiement ends after 6 days.

Talk about brutal, once we hit the prison after the 20 minute act one, it just becomes more and more interesting from a psychological standpoint. At first, no one takes any of it seriously, but when the guards step into their roles and begin taking action and humiliating the prisoners, psychological hell breaks loose. 

This one has a remarkable amount of characterization for the main characters, and while there are no major revelations in watching it, it is a fascinating bit of study to behold. The movie is supposed to be based on the true story of a similar experiment, many of the scenes happening exactly as they were portrayed on screen.

The thriller-esque plot keeps its pace up very, very well as the guards' desire to torture the prisoners increases and the prisoners slowly de-humanize. If you can handle German with English subtitles, it is a very interesting movie to watch.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind -- 2004 -- R

Wow. This film exceeded my expectations. We started with a girl meets boy find of story and flow into this shocker of our hero getting hooked up to electrodes and a computer system. He is working to erase the memory of his girlfriend (who met in the first minutes of the film) because she erased the memory of him first. As if that wasn't weird enough, the story of their first meeting doesn't match what we just watched. 

Since most of the story happens in the mind of the boy, it is often strange to watch as people disappear or change or on other occasions, he walks from one location into another completely different one without even batting an eye. Normal here is turned upside down, but it makes the most wonderful sense.

The theme of this film is that no matter how much you try to forget, history will always repeat itself. Jim Carrey plays Joel Banis, and he continues to prove that he can act beyond the zaniness he is known for. This is a serious role, and he carries the film admirably with Kate Winslet as his whimsical, spontaneous girlfriend.

If you like romantic comedies, this is for you. If you like cerebral psychological dramas, this is for you. If you want to see a film that is not just a waste of 2 hours, then this is for you.

Evita -- 1996 -- PG

In 1996, this film was nominated for a dozen Oscars including best picture. It lost most of them against The English Patient. The English Patient!!! This movie was robbed. It won best song to which Andrew Lloyd Webber quipped, "I'm so glad the English Patient didn't have a song in it."

I admit to loving the musical long before I saw the movie. I've seen it on stage and have both the original recording as well as the Broadway version, so I am obviously going to be a critic of this one. The movie version was incredible. That which would translate was translated, and tht which wouldn't wasn't. They brought back some material that was cut from the stage that worked incredibly well in a new context.

One big change was the movement of "Another Suitcase in Another Hall" from the mistress of Peron to being sung by Eva. While some criticize this move, the mistress was nothing more than a mirror of Eva, and giving that much time to a non-character is ludicrous in a film. It worked on stage since it gave the actress playing Eva a break. The context it was placed in in the film worked very well though.

The new song continues to bring tears to my eyes every time I hear it. The actors do an amazing job with it, and allow that suspension of disbelief even though they sing through the whole thing. That's an accomplishment. The power surging through this story as it comes to the end is wonderful. It should have won Best Picture. It was robbed.

The Exorcism of Emily Rose -- 2005 -- PG-13

This was a strange and occasionally unsettling film. It's always unsettling when the antagonist is something you can't see, identify with, or even control in any way. Much like the people oing up agains death in the Final Destination series, this poor girl went up against demons, hence the title.

The actual story revolves around a priest who attempted the exorcism and since she died, he is being charged with negligent homicide. He is defended by an agnostic, but the prosecution (oddly) gets a Methodist. This half of the story is pretty cut and dry as the prosecution shows the medical side and how thepriest should have hospitalized her for her own good.

The other half of the story is the dramatization of what Emily Rose went through along with some other correlating events. Here's where the creepy side of the story comes in as Emily sees and hears things and experiences some really whacked out stuff that creeps you out as it's occurring.

But the down side of this whole bit is that no one seems to be able to turn on a light. I don't know about the rest of the world, but if I hear something in my house, I start flipping lights on so I can see it. These people wander through dark (night-movie-lit) houses looking for stuff. Miss Rose walked through a darkened dorm building and left her door wide open to her darkened dorm room. Who seriously does this?

Other than people;s inability to realistically find a light switch, I thought it played out well and creepy. Everyone seemed to get what they wanted and ees were opened during the story. Not the best ever, but still not bad.

Electronic Labyrinth THX 1138 4EB -- 1967 -- NR

This is George Lucas' short film that he did in college that was seen by Francis Ford Coppola that enabled him to make THX 1138 and then American Graffiti and then Star Wars. The one that started it all, you might say.

It's a short with a run time of 15 minutes, so it has a single plot thread: THX 1138 4EB escapes. He is followed electronically until lost. It paints a strange picture of the future in its images. We know 1138's mate did not acknowledge being in love, and at the end, a "we're sorry, he died" announcement was played (as THX 1138 4EB escaped into the sunlight) advising 1138's mate that she could pick up another mate, male or female -- select preference, by going down to such and such a place.

Pacing wasn't bad, and it was edited fairly well. There wasn't a lot of character deveopment to be had, since the backbone of the story was 1138 escaping. It worked well to show off Lucas' directing ability, but had little in the way of story. Good to see where the guy came from, though.

El Mariachi -- 1992 -- R

This is Robert Rodriguez's revered "$7,000 film" that got him into the Hollywood circles. I actually read quite a bit on this before I watched the film, including Rodriguez's book, Rebel Without a Crew.

The plot is very simple: a mariachi comes to town with his guitar looking for work. In fact, he's willing to work just for tips. Little does he know that a thug has recently escaped from jail, dressed in black like our mariachi and carrying a guitar case full of weapons. This similarity creates a mix-up for the bad guys and they believe that our hero is actually the other bad guy they're looking for. Insert chase scene and a little romance from all parties involved and you've got the film.

This is a film that moves very quickly when it has to, and slows down to get to know the characters at least a little better. No one is fleshed out to an extreme here, but we get a sense of who everyone is, and know the names of all the principals, including what they appear to be capable of. The plot flows very smoothly from point to point, and considering I know what went into making it, it's a rather impressive piece of work.

So in the end, it's not that bad. There are some hiccups here and there (especially the opening "escape" from jail), but it works. It's an action film and plays out like an action film.

Eragon -- 2006 -- PG

This was one of those movies that makes me sad. Not because of the storyline, but because of the execution. It has a decent plot to it that is engaging, but they spent no time developing the characters. This movie is based on a book, and they got the run time to an hour and forty-five minutes, but it's a film that would have benefitted greatly from having another 30 minutes to it.

The plot follows a boy who finds a stone that hatches into a dragon. He finds out he is a dragon rider and was born into that position. The dragon had been waiting centuries to hatch in his possession. Well, the king wants the egg, then the dragon rider dead, so he sends out his people to destroy everything in their path. They wipe out the boy's family and he survives by way of not being there. So he sets off with his dragon and a mentor to join the resistence against the king, all the while him wanting to get the guy who did this. It's not a bad hero's journey, and we get our fair share of detours along the way before we reach the resistence and he takes on his full role to save the day.

There are a couple of minor plot hiccups that throw my logic off a little. The rpimary one is the dragon and its role with the rider. They want to get to this resistence, and it's miles away. They want to get there post haste, but rather than the rider taking the dragon and meeting the mentor there, he rides along on a horse while the dragon flies overhead. This happens throughout the entire film. I just wonder why our boy can't just hop the dragon and get there, since no one is looking for the old guy, and he'll show eventually.

A second logic leap was the travel time for one scene. Our boy finds out about the girl and flies the dragon to where she is being kept. He gets in there and finds her but is then set upon by the bad guys. The old guy, who was days away by horse (supposedly) shows up in the heat of the battle to bail our boy out. How the heck did he get there so fast?

The biggest problem in this film, though, is character development. The plot is fairly extensive and it moves constantly as the film flows along. But the trouble is we never slow down enough to learn much about the characters or get a sense of who they are or why we should care about this quest. We never see much remorse for the boy losing his family, nor do we understand his relationship with the old guy or the girl he rescues. We get an idea of him and the dragon, but we never know much more than the basics. We meet the king briefly, and get he was a big shot once, but we don't get a good sense of him. We meet his lacky, this shade character, but beyond him being cruel, we never know what his motives are either. We are given a slew of different characters who have the potential to be very interesting, but they are never taken beyond two dimensions to the point that we are engaged in the story and feel like a part of what is going on. Plot isn't everything, but that's all we got.

So in the end, it's a decent movie to watch, but ultimately not very engaging since we are not permitted to relate to any of the characters. I know this was a trilogy of books, but after checking online, I didn't find any info about the remainder of the trilogy being made. Had a little more been given to the characters, we would have had something here, but as it is, it is just an average movie.

Eraserhead -- 1977 -- NR

After watching enough David Lynch films that everyone seems to recommend, I'm beginning to get the idea that one way to become a great filmmaker is to create a film that makes no sense on one level, but if you use a lot of possible metaphors that people MIGHT be able to figure out, then you've got "one of the best horror films in years." Eraserhead is a film right up Lynch's classic alley of weirdness and wacked out imagery that attempts to tell a basic story while distracting you with grotesque weirdness.

What is the basic plot here? Well, as I see it, there is a guy who knocked up a girl and they had a baby that looks like a freakish mutation. The girl can't handle said freakish mutation, so the guy is left to care for it alone, and he spends most of his time zoning out. His zone out time attempts to gives us some insight into his thoughts, but deciphering these thoughts is like trying to figure out the ramblings of an asylum patient.

Strangely, I can't say the film was necessarily bad, though. I didn't fully understand it, but I was definitely disturbed by it. The dinner at the girl's house darn near made me ill...sorry, can't handle grostesque food. That one gets to me. The idea of the...um, thing...that is the baby is definitely a disturbing one, and to consider it to be a result of the world they're in is kind of frightening when you consider the direction this world has always been heading in. Their world is either post-apocalyptic or just the wrong side of the tracks...never sure which.

The sound on this one is always loud. The one thing that permeates this film is the constant drone of the noise from outside the buildings. That is the soundtrack. The only music here is the occasionally tinny record player that squeaks out some old timey musak. It's enough to make you crazy, but I believe that was the intent -- to immerse you completely in this world.

Lynch has said before that he believes movies should be like the world we live in: not everything makes sense all the time. Things should happen at random and leave with no explanation whatsoever. This philosophy is well within this, which is his first feature film. It is equally clever, bizarre, and ridiculous. One the one hand, the pacing feels slow, but on the other, speeding it up would have blown some of the mood. On the one hand, the imagery doesn't make any sense at all and the mutant baby makes even less sense, but on the other hand, the film feels well constructed, so maybe it is beyond me to figure it out at the moment. Maybe I am so ensconsed in traditional storytelling that I'm unable to read something that is outside the box. I mean, I used storytelling techniques to decipher the big twist of Oldboy just because it was an inevitability within the plot given to that point. This one doesn't follow any rules at all, and maybe that does bug me.

In the end, I can see this one going both ways. Like some of his other films, I want to watch it again someday to see if I can get more of it the second time around. It has something to it that I can't shake, and it is likely that feeling that makes this film better than it seems on the surface. After all, it is a rare Lynch film that can be taken at surface value, and this one definitely dosn't give you much on the proverbial surface.