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I have wanted to see this film for over a year and a half now. Ebert ranked it the second best film of 2002. It was released in U.S. theaters in January of 2003. Despite this fact (which usual hurts a film because Academy members forget) it was still nominated for four Oscars in 2003 -- Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Editing and Best Adapted Screenplay. It was a smash hit in its native Brazil and imdb.com ranks it as its readers' 31st most popular film of all time. Have I made you want to see it yet?

Here's the story: Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues, GOLDEN GATE (PALACE II)) lives in the ghetto of Rio called the City of God – where corrupt cops fruitlessly try to control the street gangs. Rocket is the narrator of the film, which chronicles two decades of life in the slums. Rocket starts out by telling the story of his brother's gang and how Lil' Dice (Douglas Silva) grows up to become Lil' Ze (Leandro Firmino), the most ruthless gangster in town. Lil' Ze does this by murdering whomever stands in his way and accomplishes it by the age of 18. The only person who keeps Lil' Ze under control is his best friend Benny (Phellipe Haagensen), who serves as a peacemaker, especially between Ze and rival gang leader Carrot (Matheus Nachtergaele).

This film is a meandering ode on school shootings. Unlike the TV's movie BANG, BANG, YOU'RE DEAD, this film doesn't try to make a grander message about why school shootings happen. It just shows this particular event unfolding. The film watches as the characters go through their day — one that many won't survive.

John (John Robinson) is the son of an alcoholic and has had many visits to the principal's office. Elias (Elias McConnell) is a photography student. Nathan (Nathan Tyson) is the big man on campus and a lifeguard. His girlfriend is Carrie (Carrie Finklea), who may or may not be pregnant. Jordan (Jordan Taylor), Nicole (Nicole George) and Brittany (Brittany Mountain) are a gaggle of popular girls who have an unusual group ritual they do. Michelle (Kristen Hicks) is a nerdy girl, who doesn't like to wear shorts in gym class. Benny (Bennie Dixon) is an African-American athlete who helps John's girlfriend Acadia (Alicia Miles) escape from the school. Alex (Alex Frost) and Eric (Eric Deulen) are the killers. While watching them prepare for their murderous actions, we get glimpses of some of their motivations for doing what they do, but nothing is definitive.

This French, Canadian and Belgium animated feature is the most original animated film I've seen since TOY STORY. Paced by catchy music, this genre-bending film has a beautiful hand drawn aesthetic, painting a lush surreal world. Like Bill Plympton's brilliant I MARRIED A STRANGE PERSON, this film has an anything-goes approach that is witty and silly and altogether fun.

Madame Souza is raising her grandson after his parents' death. He's sad and his grandmother does everything she can to cheer him up including buying him a dog named Bruno. In the end, she discovers that he loves bicycles and ends up training him into a world-class cyclist. Then during the Tour de France, the Mafia kidnaps her grandson to use in a shady gambling ring. Madame Souza, with trusty Bruno by her side, heads out across the Atlantic to the city of Belleville (i.e. New York City) to rescue her grandson. There she teams up with '30s singing sensation the Triplets of Belleville in her attempt to out smart the gangsters.

I guess you could call this a romantic comedy, but it's more of a character study. Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise, MAGNOLIA) is a high-powered sports agent, who one day has a crisis of conscience and writes a mission statement that urges his business to focus less on money and more on the clients. Its title is "The Things We Think, But Do Not Say." Despite a standing applause for the gesture, he is quickly fired. Bringing to mind the statement – some things should be left unsaid.

Maguire tries to round up his clients to come with him, but he is only able to sign cocky wide receiver Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr., AS GOOD AS IT GETS) and a verbal agreement from the father of college quarterback sensation Frank Cushman (Jerry O'Connell, TV's SLIDERS). In a dramatic exit from his work, he calls for people to come with him, creating a very nervous silence. However, accountant Dorothy Boyd (Renee Zellweger, CHICAGO) stands up and joins Maguire in his noble (if not foolhardy) cause.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that this film is one of the best slice of life films ever made. It does for the 1970s what AMERICAN GRAFFITI did for the 1950s. And yet both films seem to be telling the same story. I guess kids of all generations pretty much go through the same sort of stuff.

The story follows various groups of high school students on the last day of school in 1976. Seniors, both girls and boys, look forward to starting the hazing traditions of the new freshmen when the bell rings. If the film really has a main character it's Randall "Pink" Floyd, played by Jason London (THE MAN IN THE MOON), the starting quarterback and Mr. Popular. His couch has given him a "Pledge" form to sign stating that he will not do drugs. It's one of those silly things that schools make kids do to make parents think that the school is actually addressing an issue. It's the kind of thing kids sign, while smoking a joint. Pink out of principle doesn't want to sign the form and debates in his head the purpose of sports, cliques and living by other people's rules.

If you know enough about Alfred Hitchcock to recognizes his style, but not enough to know all his films than you could easily think that CHARADE is one of his pictures. This is not a slight against director Stanley Donen (TWO FOR THE ROAD), but his film embraces all that is Hitchcockian. The innocent thrust into dangerous situations. The unexpected humor. Witty dialogue. And Cary Grant.

Regina Lampert (Audrey Hepburn, TWO OF THE ROAD) wants to divorce her husband because he lies to her. Then she returns home from vacation to discover that he has sold all their things and has gotten himself murdered. She goes to his funeral where she meets a trio of shady men — Tex Panthollow (James Coburn, ADDICTION), Herman Scobie (George Kennedy, COOL HAND LUKE) and Sylvie Gaudel (Dominique Minot, THOMAS). She is then called in to the American consulate by CIA agent Leopold Gideon (Walter Matthau, MIRAGE), who explains to her that the men at her husband's funeral and her husband stole $250,000 during WWII and may want to kill her for the money, which she doesn't know it's whereabouts.

A lot of debate has arisen over the splitting of KILL BILL into two parts because it was indented to be one film. Does the film work as two films? Yes. Mainly because they have two different tones. Audiences going into VOLUME 2 thinking they are going to get the same non-stop action as the first film will be disappointed. The first film was closer to samurai and kung fu films, where as the second is closer akin to spaghetti Westerns.

What's so strikingly different about this film from the first is the time it pays to developing the characters. The film starts with a black and white recap of the first film by The Bride (Uma Thurman, GATTACA), reminiscent of old film noir trailers. Then the story flashes back to the massacre at the Bride's wedding rehearsal where we get more background on The Bride, including what she's been doing with her life since leaving the assassin's crew of Bill (David Carradine, TVs KUNG FU). This is the quiet before the storm.

How faithful this adaptation is to the James Fenimore Cooper novel I do not know. The plot for the most part is a standard romantic adventure. Hawkeye (Daniel Day-Lewis, GANGS OF NEW YORK) is a white man raised by Indians, who falls in love with Cora Munro (Madeleine Stowe, BAD GIRLS), the oldest daughter of British colonel Edmund Munro (Maurice Roeves, TV's DAVID). Or course like most great romances, their needs to be a love triangle so we get shady British officer Duncan Hayward (Steven Waddington, SLEEPY HOLLOW), who loves Cora, but she does not return the same feelings.

Cora, Duncan and Munro's younger daughter, Alice (Jodhi May, THE HOUSE OF MIRTH), fall into grave danger and Hawkeye, along with his Indian brethren Chingachgook (Russell Means, BUFFALO GIRLS) and Uncas (Eric Schweig, TOM AND HUCK), rescue them, leading Hawkeye to fall in love with Cora to the dismay of Duncan. It's pretty standard stuff really. But what makes this film so good is the detail.

When Kevin Costner is good (i.e. DANCES WITH WOLVES, FIELD OF DREAMS) he can be great. But when he's bad (i.e. THE POSTMAN), he's awful. Costner proves himself with his film, making a solid Western in the classic sense. The film has something to say about the effects of violence, especially war, on a man's psyche.

Costner plays Charley Waite, a quiet cowboy, who has been working for Boss Spearman (Robert Duvall, THE APOSTLE) for more than a decade. Boss Spearman is kind and wise, but he's cautious about strangers. Working with them is the childlike big man Mose (Abraham Benrubi, TV's ER) and the young Hispanic rookie Button (Diego Luna, Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN). When Mose goes to town for supplies and is jumped by locals, Boss and Charley want to make their presence known to the men that threaten them, which include crocked Irish landowner Denton Baxter (Michael Gambon, GOSFORD PARK) and corrupt sheriff Poole (James Russo, THE NINTH GATE). In the meantime, they get Doc (Dean McDermott, A COOL, DRY PLACE) and Sue Barlow (Annette Bening, AMERICAN BEAUTY) to fix up Mose. Charley has an instant attraction to Sue. When tragedy strikes, Boss and Charley ride into town for their revenge.

Two things have to come together to make a good documentary a great one -- skilled and dedicated filmmakers that know what questions to ask and who to ask them to and serendipity. This film has both. The film chronicles the lives of the Friedman family, whose patriarch was convicted of child molestation along with his youngest son. It was one of the most famous such cases in American history. What the filmmakers lucked into with this documentary is that the oldest son, David, filmed and video recorded many family meetings even after Arnold, the father, and Jesse, the son, were arrested.

The film unblinkingly peers into the turmoil that this family went through. We get glimpses of Arnold as a funny, happy-go-lucky kind of guy, but after the charges were brought against him, he becomes a quiet, meek guilt-ridden lump. Elaine, Arnold's wife, seemed to love her husband before the charges, but old buried issues boiled to the surface and she quickly wrote him off. This betrayal by his mother created great anger and resentment in David, who sees his father through rose-colored glasses and sees his mother through cloudy resentment. Seth, the middle child, didn't even participate in the film, which adds to the story's mystery and makes the reading of the affects on the family more complex. Jesse, the youngest son, seems the most resolved about the situation and the most honest about the way he views both his father and mother. The last family member interviewed is Arnold's brother Howard, who is very emotionally scarred by the scandal. A revelation about Howard late in the movie adds a whole new wrinkle to him and his brother.

This film from Japan was an international sensation. It was a controversial one as well. I saw it by getting an all-region DVD from Korea off e-Bay for Christmas. But I am now seeing it at some indie rental outlets for rent. I've been waiting two years to see this film and it was well worth it. Simply explaining the plot will explain the controversy.

It's set in a near future Japan where adults have lost all faith in the morals of the teen generation. As a way to keep the youth as a whole in line, they have instituted a new act where one ninth-grade class a year is chosen to participate in Battle Royale. The 42 students must kill each other off one by one until only one teen survives. If you don't kill, a collar around your neck will explode, killing you.