Shane - (George Stevens;1952;USA) - ****
A gunfighter arrives on a family's farmland, and works for them to leave his violent life. However, land-grabbers make that very difficult.
One of the greatest westerns. Alan Ladd is wonderful as the iconic protagonist who becomes a boy's role-model. The film plays out as a simple story that has something very meaningful to say, and has an ending still debated to this day. The cinematography brings a nice, natural beauty to the film as well. A true classic.

The Phantom of the Opera - (Joel Schumacher;2004;USA/UK) - ***
A disfigured musician harasses the opera house he lives in for the benefit of a young singer he loves.
I liked the ending, although somewhat cliche, the musical scenes (minus the ones done by the minor characters), and most of all, the art direction. I thought this would be generally bad considering it's popularity among teenie-boppers at my school, but I was pleasantly surprised. This works very well as a musical. Overall a very good film just shy of being great.