AWN Blogs

Based on Chuck Barris' unauthorized autobiography, the film shows how the host of the GONG SHOW also moonlighted as an assassin for the CIA. You're probably thinking to yourself, what? Barris, who also created THE DATING GAME and THE NEWLYWED GAME, truly claims in his autobiography that he killed 33 people for his government. Is it true — most people think not — but Barris still sticks by his tale.

In the film, Sam Rockwell (GREEN MILE, MATCHSTICK MEN) plays Barris as a guy who constantly doubts his own achievements. He views himself as someone who has done impressive things but not as impressive as he wishes he could have done. At the height of his fame, TV critics declared him the sole reason for the decline of human society; kind of like the makers of a lot of reality shows are called today. The sad thing is that he believed them. Rockwell plays the conflicted soul of a man who strives for greatness in all the wrong places.

The buzz on this film has been building for a while. Some said it was the best horror film since HALLOWEEN. I wouldn’t go that far, but it is darn good. Most horror flicks these days go for cheap scares and gore. MAY has some gore, but what it has over films like JASON 6,256 is that it has solid characters.

Like Frankenstein’s monster, we care about May (Angela Bettis, GIRL, INTERRUPTED), because we can see a human being inside. May is a desperately lonely young woman who works at a pet hospital. She was rejected as a child and has had little luck making friends. She wears strange homemade clothes and has an infatuation with the gross nature of her job. More than anything May wants a friend and we hope things will turn around for her as we see her spiral out of control. She starts dating mechanic and wannabe filmmaker Adam (Jeremy Sisto, ANGEL EYES). He’s attracted to her because her weirdness is intriguing. Her co-worker Polly (Anna Faris, SCARY MOVIE), a lesbian, is also interested, but she soon starts to scare them.

This sci-fi flick is part 1984 part MATRIX. The plot is completely borrowed from the classic sci-fi novels like the aforementioned Orwell novel, FAHRENHEIT 451 and A BRAVE NEW WORLD. The high-octane fight sequences are all MATRIX.

The story is set in the 21 Century after the Third World War. Humans have discovered that the bane of human survival is our emotions, which lead to wars. The Earth's populations are forced to take an emotion-numbing drug and those suspected of feeling are killed. Highly trained government agents called Clerics are sent out to find Sense Offenders. John Preston (Christian Bale, AMERICAN PSYCHO) is the top Cleric and, after his original partner is killed as a Sense Offender, he is assigned Brandt (Taye Diggs, CHICAGO) as his new partner. But after Preston arrests pretty Mary O'Brien (Emily Watson, PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE) on Sense Offense charges, he stops taking his Prozium to see feelings from a rebel's point of view. Soon he can't hide his feelings, which makes Brandt suspicious.

This film has two love stories within each other. The key to that statement is love. Many modern love stories are about the explosion and not the suspense. Neil LaBute's film understands that sex and love start in the mind.

The first is the secret affair of a Victorian poet named Randolph Henry Ash (Jeremy Northam, GOSFORD PARK), noted for being a devote husband, and lesbian poet Christabel LaMotte (Jennifer Ehle, SUNSHINE). The second is Ash scholar Roland Michell (Aaron Eckhart, IN THE COMPANY OF MEN) and LaMotte scholar Maud Bailey (Gwyneth Paltrow, SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE), who are secretly investigating the Ash and LaMotte affair.

The story works like a mystery. What’s refreshing about the story is the look at career scholars, who devote their lives to one topic. The first time Roland meets Maud, she uses her superior knowledge of LaMotte as a way of feeling superior to Roland. He has discovered a letter from Ash to LaMotte, which challenges everything she has thought about her favorite poet. Maud is the central character and through the journey of discovering more about LaMotte she is allowed to open up herself. Likewise, Roland has been burned in love so often that staying distant and in his head is safe.

It's taken awhile for me to catch this film, which came out about a year ago. Disney's traditional animation division has been turning out mainly average productions for nearly a decade now. Most of their big-budget failures were done in LA.. but this flick was greenlit with a small budget and done without the looming eye of execs in Orlando, Florida. What we get is a free-for-all from director, writer and voice of Stitch Chris Sanders' imagination.

The story is simple: an alien scientist Dr. Jumba (David Ogden Stiers, THE MAJESTIC) creates the ultimate destruction machine, Stitch, who is exiled from his home planet and sentenced to live on an asteroid. He escapes and ends up on Earth where, to avoid capture by Dr. Jumba and agent Pleakley (Kevin McDonald, TV's KIDS IN THE HALL), he poses as a dog and is adopted by Lilo (Daveigh Chase, SPIRITED AWAY) and her older sister Nani (Tia Carrere, WAYNE'S WORLD), who is trying to raise her little sister after their parents' death. Both Lilo and Stitch are perfect cases for anger management therapy and create havoc in Nani's life, spurring social worker Cobra Bubbles (Ving Rhames, PULP FICTION) to consider sending Lilo to a foster home.

With the critical success of THE ELEPHANT MAN and the mainstream flop of DUNE behind him, director David Lynch made BLUE VELVET, which truly announced his unique and original style to the world. Largely debated about what it really means, the film is still surprisingly simple and can be viewed as a moody mystery.

Set in the picturesque suburbs of an unnamed American town, Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan, DUNE) finds a severed ear in a field one afternoon, which he takes to the police, spurring within him the desire to uncover the mysterious events surrounding the ear and a sultry voiced nightclub singer named Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini, WHITE NIGHTS). To help him, Jeffrey enlists the police chief's high school-aged daughter Sandy (Laura Dern, JURASSIC PARK). The deeper and deeper Jeffrey gets involved the more he is aroused by the corrupt underbelly of this home town that he never knew existed. Haunting Dorothy is Frank Booth (DENNIS HOPPER, RIVER'S EDGE), a violent man with a fetish for blue velvet and ether.

Upon seeing the trailer for this film I thought "Oh goodness, Mel Gibson is doing a Vietnam version of BRAVEHEART like he did an American Revolution version with THE PATRIOT." However, I was surprised by the solid reviews and comparisons to BLACK HAWK DOWN. And after seeing the movie, I can say that I enjoyed this film better than BLACK HAWK DOWN.

The story follows the events of the first land battle in Vietnam where 400 U.S. soldiers were helicoptered into the battlefield and found themselves surrounded by 2,000 Viet Cong. The film begins in the U.S., introducing us to the various characters. Lt. Col. Hal Moore (Gibson) is a Korea veteran and a Harvard graduate who studied international relations. He's worried that he's leading his Battalion of the Seventh Cavalry, which was Custer's regiment, into an ambush. He's a strong man and a wise leader with a strong religious faith.

Gritty and powerful are the best adjectives to describe this movie. The film is a dramatization of the hideous events that transpired on January 30, 1972 in Derry, Northern Ireland, when British troops opened fire on a crowd of Irish marchers, killing 13 people and injuring 14, one of which succumbed to his injuries later. Some of the soldiers were later decorated by the British royalty.

The central character is Ivan Cooper, the Protestant Stormont Member of Parliament, who organized the march. Director Paul Greengrass (THE THEORY OF FLIGHT) uses a documentary-like style to its fullest extent. The viewer is given snippets of scenes setting up the planning of the rally on both sides, leading to the dreadful finale. The style is bold and striking and adds to the power of the whole film. One feels like an eyewitness. Greengrass is obviously leaning toward an Irish point of view, but the raw feel of the style makes its argument so convincing.

Well my top ten list has changed so much since I sent it out in January and now that I've seen this film, we have a new #1. I was simply blown away. Hayao Miyazaki is quickly becoming a director that I eagerly await seeing what he will do next. PRINCESS MONONOKE was my favorite film of 1999 and I couldn't even imagine Miyazaki making a film to match it, but he did. In some ways, SPIRITED AWAY is better, but it's like picking the best of any great director who does diverse work. MONONOKE was one of the best action/adventure/fantasy films I've ever seen, while SPIRITED AWAY is one of the best children's fantasy films I've ever seen.

The story follows Chihiro (Daveigh Chase, THE RING), a spoiled little brat who doesn't want to move to a new home with her parents. On moving day, her father (Michael Chiklis, TV's THE SHIELD) takes a wrong turn and ends up in a deserted village. Chihiro's father and mother (Lauren Holly, DUMB & DUMBER) wander into a restaurant and before long are wolfing down food. As the sun sets, they turn into pigs and Chihiro finds herself stuck in the town, which is a recreational spot for spirits. She soon receives the kind help of the mysterious and magical Haku (Jason Marsden, TV's FULL HOUSE). To survive, she must get a job with the dubious witch, Yubaba (Suzanne Pleshette, TV's BOB NEWHART) who owns the bathhouse.

This film falls under the guilty pleasure category, because it's funny and charming and the actors sell the material, which is based on Shakespeare's TAMING OF THE SHREW. The other selling point of the film is the breakthrough performances by young stars Julia Stiles (SAVE THE LAST DANCE) as Kat and Heather Ledger (FOUR FEATHERS) as Pat.

First thing that could have been a major problem was that Pat and Kat's relationship is based on a bride. I hate romantic comedies based on deceptions. However, Ledger captures the viewer and we are left feeling that the bribe just serves as a device to bring the two characters to meet rather than something that really affects their budding relationship. Though we get the big "girl runs away in horror after discovering the deception" bit, Stiles plays it well and we do get a nice believable make-up scene at the end. Plus, the premise of the bribe, which is that rich jerk Joey (Andrew Keegan, O) wants to date Kat's younger sister Bianca (Larisa Oleynik, TV's THE SECRET WORLD OF ALEX MACK), but can only do so if Kat dates, and what transpires afterwards, do not leave Pat looking malicious.

This political satire by director Mike Nichols (THE GRADUATE), in my opinion, is perfect. It looks at the American political process in a new way for a fictional film. A party is named, but the story is universal. Left- or right-leaning viewers can both enjoy this film equally. Political junkies will make a ball picking out the real life counter parts to the film's fictional cast.

Based on the book of the same name by Anonymous, the film follows the primary campaign for the Democratic ticket of Southern governor Jack Stanton (John Travolta, PULP FICTION). Okay, okay, it's Bill Clinton -- Nichols does nothing to really hide who the film is really about. Emma Thompson (DEAD AGAIN) plays the Hillary Clinton-like Susan Stanton. Both actors become their characters fully and I was blown away by their performances. I think this is Travolta's best. However, the central character in the film is Henry Burton (Adrian Lester, LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST), the son of a black civil rights leader and an activist in his own right. He is roped into becoming a campaign manager and soon falls for the charming and surprisingly honest Stanton.

If you haven't seen this one than I don't know where you've been since 1985? The film is a fun twist on your typical time traveler story. And from what I can remember it's the first (or at least most popular) time traveling flick that deals with the paradox possibilities of changing the past -- even slightly.

Michael J. Fox's (TV's SPIN CITY) portrayal of Marty McFly made the actor a mega-star. Just think Eric Stoltz (PULP FICTION, LITTLE WOMEN) was originally cast as Marty, but they fired him only a few days into shooting. If you don't know the plot here it is -- Marty goes back in time 30 years and interferes with his parent's first meeting, which creates a ripple in time affecting his own existence. Meanwhile, he finds the creator of the time machine, his good friend, Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd, WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT?). To send Marty back to the future, they must perfectly time the time machine hitting a wire as a lightning strike hits a clock tower.