Ran **** (Top 60) (2nd time)
1985, Kurosawa, Jap/Fr
Betrayed and exiled by two of his sons, an old clan head seeks redemption from his third son, who he wrongly accused of greed when on the throne.
Haunting and brutal, an epic brilliantly made by a director who, after all those years, proved to still be the master at 75. He camera hardly moves, and many of the images seem at first to be stills. The whole thing is extraordinary viewing.

Mick

The Public Enemy - (William A. Wellman;1931;USA) - ****
Tom Powers rises from being a young punk to a bootlegging gangster.
Although some of the characters seem to be forgotten about, and there are some dragging scenes, this is, like Little Caesar, one of the most influential gangster films ever. The rain scene towards the end is pure classic, and sports a great line to end it, and as Mike said, sum the movie up. "I ain't so tough..." Cagney is pretty good in this role, although his best was yet to come.
#87

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Burton; 2005)
A young impoverished boy is wins a tour of the bizarre Willy Wonka's chocolate and sweets factory.

I liked this far better than the original. Tim Burton brought his interesting flavor to the table, and deffinately made it a better expirience. This is, by far, the most entertainment I've ever gotten out of a child geared film.
***1/2 out of *****

Kill Bill Vol. 2 will make it all worth while. To tell the truth, I didn't like Kill Bill Vol. 1 at all until I saw Vol. 2

UGH, I can either see War of the Worlds or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory tomorrow. I can't pick. :p

Dark Water

I had been wanting to see this for a little while in the theater. I wasn't expecting much from this movie and I'm safe to say I got nothing much from this movie. Pretty lame, predictable "suspense" (not horror) movie. Another Japanese movie that fails miserably in its American adaptation (a la The Grudge). Unfortunately, even Jennifer Connelly couldn't save this movie although she was good in it.

Yes DARK WATER looks lame. Really, why can't American horror movies be disturbing yet unique anymore?

Stanley Kubrick's BARRY LYNDON - ****1/2 out of 5

Cited by many as among the most beautiful motion pictures ever, which I have to agree. A really good underrated Kubrick picture(there is such a thing?!?) that was a big bomb back in 1975 but now is considered by many as a great movie. Recently named on TIME's Top 100 Movies list.

Other future RRA's VIDEO BIN REVIEW subjects:

Michael Cimino's YEAR OF THE DRAGON
Brian DePalma's OBSESSION
COP LAND
Oliver Stone's NIXON

Better yet, how about a horror movie that doesn't have a kid as the villain?

OMG THE LIL GERL IZ GUNA KIL ME KUZ HER FAMLY HERT HER@!1!

They're both about the same. Nothing too special, but entertaining none the less.

However, unless you enjoy ditzy 13 year old girls laughing at the stupidest of jokes, and annoying little 12 year olds repeating every single line, I'd go with War of the Worlds.

Either way don't expect to be blown away. Expect an average, but entertaining film.

*************WAR OF THE WORLDS SPOILER ALERT************

DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU DIDN'T SEE WAR OF THE WORLDS


I saw it. A suspensful movie throughout and then it's like you hit a brick wall at the end of the movie. Suspensful movie that keeps you interested and then very ANTI-CLIMACTIC ending. Very dissapointed in the way that it just ends.


Don Cardi

*SPOILER*

I saw it too DC. I did like it. The special affects were great and it was very suspensful. I agree with you about the ending, and didn't "get" the bird thing (they didn't make it clear IMO). I expected it to end differently.


TIS

Yea I didnt love the ending either. But I was pretty much the last of my friends to see this movie, and they told me the ending was horrible, so basically I went in thinking the end was gonna be pure dog shit. I didnt think it was quite that bad so I wasnt disappointed.

I enjoyed War of the Worlds and will be purchasing it on DVD, but I agree with everybody that the ending was confusing. Hopefully if there's commentary they might "explain" better what they meant to get across

The thing you have the remember about War of the Worlds, is the time the book was written, abrupt endings like that were acceptable. However, that in mind, I still say the movie was average. Entertaining, but average.

I heard they wanted to make the film three hours long, but it was cut down to one hour, fifty minutes. I suppose that may have done something to the overall quality.


Oh, and TIS, as far as the bird thing goes...

***SPOILER****

The tripods were not immune to Earth's diseases. It wasn't neccisarily the birds that killed them off, but more so they germs they held.

***END SPOILER***

If they were gonna stay with the same ending than I'm glad they stuck to the hour and 50 minute movie as opposed to 3 hours because I would have been even more pissed after waiting that long for something to happen

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - (Tim Burton;2005;USA) - ***1/2
A poor boy wins one of the five golden tickets to enter Willy Wonka's mysterious chocolate factory.
Burton has done the book justice. His visuals give this film a wonderful look. Depp's performance is good, although he has done better, and Highmore does even better then his role in Finding Neverland. If anyone sees this comparing it to the older adaptation, they aren't seeing this the right way. It's different, some ways better and some ways lesser, but it all turns out great in it's own right. I like that Dahl's original lyrics were used in the musical scenes, although the television one was poor. Overall, this is a great fantasy film, done wonderfully by Burton, especially the candy room. It's only problem is being over the top in several instances.

Just got done watching this movie. It's horrible! It's drawn out, nothing happens, and no happy ending. No cinematic climax; nothing. Don't waste your time.

.

SPOILER MATERIAL ----------------- SPOILER MATERIAL ----------------

The bird thing was meant to simply show that the tripods' shields had gone down and the birds were able to get close to the machines.

I, too, found the movie to be suspenseful but wasn't overly impressed by it. It lacked focus and spread itself too thin. The movie could have done without the Tim Robbins scene (which was based on a scene from the original '53 movie). Did y'all notice Gene Barry (from the original) in this remake?

The birds had nothing to with that, the only significance of the birds is that they landed on one of the tripods i.e. the army could see that the forcefield wasn't working properly, and so were able to take it down.

.

SPOILER MATERIAL ----------------- SPOILER MATERIAL ----------------

The bird thing was meant to simply show that the tripods' shields had gone down and the birds were able to get close to the machines.

I, too, found the movie to be suspenseful but wasn't overly impressed by it. It lacked focus and spread itself too thin. The movie could have done without the Tim Robbins scene (which was based on a scene from the original '53 movie). Did y'all notice Gene Barry (from the original) in this remake? [/b][/quote]SC,

Gene Barry of "Bat Masterson" fame???? Which role did he play?


TIS

Bringing Up Baby *** (1st Time)
1938, Hawks, US
A zoologist meets a zany girl who loses his dinosaur bone, causes him to miss his own wedding, and introduces him to a tame leopard.
Delightful, fast, riotous comedy with one gag after another. Not all of them hit, but there're enough to go round.

Mick

I watched that for the first time myself about a month ago. I wasn't impressed with it that much but again I don't like the "screwball" comedy

I ADORE THAT MOVIE!!!!!! :-)))

That's what you get when you watch too many Henry Potters......

That's what you get when you watch too many Henry Potters...... [/b][/quote]No, you can ask anybody. I laugh at any and everything for the longest time, but screwball comedy is just not something that's funny to me. It's too childish and predictable from the screwball comedy I've seen

First Blood - (Ted Kotcheff;1982;USA) - ***
A mentally unstable Green Beret drifter retreats into the wilderness after being harassed by small-town cops.
A pretty good and solid film. It works as an action film without being too gratuitous, and works as a drama/thriller to an extent. This is probably Stallone's only good movie from the 80's. The music is good, and the cinematography is great. The original ending would've been better.
#26

City Lights #76 on the AFI Top 100 List

This movie I actually kinda liked, mainly due to the fact that I thought it was gonna be 3 hours and it was only a little over 1 hour. The movie ended kind of abruptly but I did kinda enjoy now looking back. It actually had some funny parts too

What was the original ending?

I actually remember loving the ending more than the rest of the movie - maybe because thats where Rambo is really speaking. The best part of the movie begins when he say :

"Nothing is over! Nothing! You just don't turn it off"

Thats where hes starting to open up - to me, this last scene has more power than all the bullets and explosions in the movie.

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I just saw "Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999)

Jim Jarmusch who also directed "Dead Man" delivers another interesting movie. I say "interesting" because both Dead Man and Ghost Dog are not among my favs, but they were interesting movies to watch - I do want to see more from Jarmusch.

Yeah the remake is nice, and Garcia's parts are the best.
Have u seen the original with the Rat Pack?
Sinatra, Martin and the rest are truly great in this one-I like it much more than the remake. The different ending is top notch.

Yep, that Gene Barry. He was the star of the original "War of the Worlds" (1953), and in this new version he played the kids' grandfather.