AWN Blogs

You ain’t seen nothing like this. It’s PULP FICTION drenched in film noir. If you’ve ever read a Frank Miller comic this film is that experience on the screen. It’s violent and stylish and dripping with cynicism… and that’s what makes it great.

Based on three SIN CITY comics – “That Yellow Bastard,” “The Hard Goodbye” and “The Big, Fat Kill” – the film works as three separate episodes taking place in one city with various characters overlapping each tale. The film starts with an unrelated opening involving Josh Hartnett (BLACK HAWK DOWN) and Marley Shelton (NEVER BEEN KISSED), which sets the tone for the film. Then we start out with Bruce Willis (THE SIXTH SENSE) as veteran cop Hartigan, who is after a pedophile (Nick Stahl, TV’s CARNIVALE), who’s the son of the powerful senator Roark (Powers Boothe, FRAILTY).

This film is based on 1973 Japanese anime film of the same name. With modern visual effects, the film captures the feel of anime to the T. However, this film doesn’t rise above anime’s tendency to ramp up outlandish action with tacked on pretentiousness.

The film is set in an industrialized future — a mix of Fritz Lang’s METROPOLIS and Kerry Conran’s SKY CAPTAIN. Kotaro Azuma (Akira Terao, RAN) is a famed scientist who has discovered the “neo-cell” that can regrow any human cell. He desperately wants his experiment to work because he wants to cure his ailing wife Midori (Kanako Higuchi, 1989’s ZATOICHI), who is going blind. Kotaro’s rebellious son Tetsuya (Yusuke Iseya, AFTER LIFE) joins the army to spite his father and witnesses the horrors of war first hand. Tetsuya is engaged to Luna (Kumiko Aso, KAIRO), who loves him dearly.

Coming out one year after GHOST and kicking off the directing career of Anthony Minghella (ENGLISH PATIENT), the story follows the healing process Nina (Juliet Stevenson, BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM) goes through after her beloved boyfriend Jamie (Alan Rickman, ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES) dies.

The film starts as a straight-forward drama, but midway through brings in the ghost of Jamie. Before Jamie reappears, Nina is having a very hard time. She can’t date and is very sensitive about anything to do with Jamie. There’s a powerful scene where Nina breaks down in a therapy session, which is one of the most heartrending crying scenes I’ve ever seen.

Once Jamie returns everything is just peachy between Nina and him. But once he starts to invite his ghostly friends over, she starts to develop the power to move on with life, especially after meeting the funny Mark (Michael Maloney, 1996’s HAMLET).

This psychological thriller from director Robert Altman (M*A*S*H) is like a cross between DON’T LOOK NOW, SPIDER and A BEAUTIFUL MIND.

Cathryn (Susannah York, THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON’T THEY?) is a writer, whose husband Hugh (Rene Auberjonois, TV’s STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE) is a successful businessman. Early on, we realize that Cathryn is schizophrenic and sees things that are not real. After an episode, Cathryn convinces Hugh to take a holiday in the country. There, they meet with friend Rene (Marcel Bozzuffi, Z), whose young daughter Susannah (Cathryn Harrison, THE DRESSER) becomes friends with Cathryn.

The visions Cathryn experiences range from people in her life like her husband, Rene and Susannah to dead lover Marcel (Hugh Millais, MCCABE & MRS. MILLER). Sometimes the visions are completely in her mind and at other times she mistakes one person for another. This creates a creepy uncertainty about what is real and what is not. Cathryn's struggles with her sanity lead to violent actions.

South Korea is an emerging film powerhouse. This film proves that filmmakers working anywhere can rival Hollywood in production value and storytelling skills. For lack of a better description, this is a Korean SAVING PRIVATE RYAN with shades of PLATOON and APOCALYPSE NOW. Director Je-gyu Kang (SHIRI) has don't an amazing task of creating a film that is both epic and intimate at the same time.

Jin-tae (Dong-Kun Jang, TV’s GHOST) is a shoeshine boy who dreams of opening his own shoe shop. He works to support his mother, his fiancée Young-shin (Eun-ju Lee, GARDEN OF HEAVEN), her young siblings and his 18-year-old brother Jin-seok (Bin Won), who is college material. Their life is simple, but they are happy. Then the Korean War breaks out and everything changes.

This dramedy from Iceland was made in 2001 and had a small release in the U.S. in 2004. The film is somewhat of a coming of age tale set in 1978, following teenager Agga (Ugla Egilsdottir, film debut).

Her cousin Freyja (Margret Vilhjalmsdottir) (really the daughter of her grandmother’s friend) moves back to Iceland from America. Her husband has died and Agga suspects Freyja is the Devil incarnate. What Freyja is is a sensation in the small town with her sexpot attitude and new fashionable clothes. We quickly discover that her motivations are to spite everyone in town who use to make fun of her for her appearance as a child. She attempts this by trying to seduce the town’s most eligible bachelor Bjorn Theodor (Heino Ferch, DOWNFALL).

This film definitely has a gimmick, however it’s dealt with in an extremely natural and psychological way. Louise Harrington (Laura Linney, KINSEY) is a 39-year-old admissions chief for Columbia University. She is divorced, but is still friends with her ex, a science professor named Peter (Gabriel Byrne, GHOST SHIP). One day she comes upon an application with the name F. Scott Feinstadt on it and becomes enraptured by it. This is due to the fact that Louise’s high school love had the same name.

She makes an appointment with the student – played by Topher Grace (IN GOOD COMPANY) – and discovers that he looks amazingly like her former love, who was killed when they were young. This bit of whimsy opens up a vibrant affair between Louise and F. Scott, who is 20 years her junior.

This film was a surprise hit of last summer. This lovely old-fashioned romance deserves it. Based on a Nicholas Sparks novel, the film chronicles the summer romance of young lumberyard worker Noah (Ryan Gosling, MURDER BY NUMBERS) and pampered vacationer Allie (Rachel McAdams, MEAN GIRLS). This story is being told, however, by Duke (James Garner, VICTOR/VICTORIA) to Mrs. Calhoun (Gena Rowlands, A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE), a woman in a nursing home suffering from dementia.

Of course, Allie’s snobby parents John and Anne Hamilton (David Thornton, A CIVIL ACTION, and Joan Allen, ICE STORM) don’t approve of the romance. To describe, the plot of the film would be to describe the plot of hundreds of other romance tales. However, this film is filled with original detail and cliché bending characters, which make the entire film fresh and delightful.

The topic of this film isn’t revolutionary -- its been done more complexly before. However, the well-observed characters from first time feature director and writer Jacob Aaron Estes make this film intriguing and captivating.

Sam (Rory Culkin, YOU CAN COUNT ON ME) is a young teen on the smaller side. He is often beat up by classmate George (Josh Peck, SPUN), a slow, heavy kid. Sam and his older brother Rocky (Trevor Morgan, JURASSIC PARK III) joke around about beating up George. Sam’s girlfriend Millie (Carly Schroeder, TV’s PORT CHARLES) even asks him if he could snap his fingers and George would drop dead would he do it. The sensitive Sam struggles with this moral question.

Gabriele Salvatores’ (MEDITERRANEO) I’M NOT SCARED is a simple kidnap thriller that achieves grander status do to its observant eye, point of view and style.

Michele (Giuseppe Cristiano) is a 5th grader who lives in a remote village in Italy. His family is poor. His father Pino (Dino Abbrescia) is often away and is mean, but not because he doesn’t love his children, but because he is selfish, lazy and ignorant. You can tell that he really does love his children, as does their mother Anna (Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, THE MACHINIST), who, however, tends to go long with what Pino says.

One day while playing with friends, Michele discovers a haggard-looking boy in a hole in the ground near an abandoned farm. Michele is scared, but his curiosity drives him back to the boy. However, when Sergio (Diego Abatantuono, MEDITERRANEO) arrives in town, the situation becomes clearer and more dangerous.

This film is an emotional kicker. One moment it will have you laughing with its dark humor and in a split second a mean jab by one of the characters will have your stomach turning in knots.

Martha (Elizabeth Taylor, FATHER OF THE BRIDE) and George (Richard Burton, THE LONGEST DAY) have been married for too long you could say. Their marriage is in no way stable. They bicker and fight from the moment we meet them. But it starts off in a playful way and gets more ugly as time goes by. As the film opens, they are arriving home from a party. George is a history professor at the college where Martha’s father is the president. Martha has invited a young new biology professor named Nick (George Segal, FUN WITH DICK AND JANE) and his bubbly wife Honey (Sandy Dennis, THE INDIAN RUNNER) over for drinks.