Reviews

This film does a wonderful job of taking on the subject of vampires with few twists, some old - some not so old.

The first thing I noticed about the film is that the subject matter - vampirism - is twisted a bit. The word vampire is never used, although references are subtly made. Steven does drink the blood of his victims, but it is not the blood which sustains him, but the emotions of the victim - which show up as chemicals in their blood. He feeds specifically on the love of the victim for him, so he must make the women love him before he can kill them.

This leads to another twist, and the title of the film. He must in part at least love the women also, because love cannot be real unless it is shared by two people. Since he must love them before he kills them, he ends up killing them with tears in his eyes, like the crocodiles of the title. In the end, it is this attachment which is his undoing. No more said, see the film.

Sef Tarbell

We all know that adaptations from novels sometimes suffer greatly from the change of media from page to screen. 'From Hell' is not only one of the best adaptations that I have ever seen, but managed to surprise me. It is of course, an adaptation from a graphic novel which is the best situation, since the storyboarding is already done to some extent.

The sheer creepiness of the movie was wonderful. I am a bit jaded about 'horror' and 'suspense' movies, and this movie managed several times to build great nervous suspense in me and scare me a couple of times to boot.

Go see it. Read the novel afterwards.

I have seen and read the story of a stranger goes to live in a new neighborhood and has to work to be accepted many times. And I've been there, I think almost all people have been there.

But this movie handles a bunch of other issues well. Teenage pregnancy and motherhood, racism, mixed-race couples, lost dreams... It's a fairy tale story of lost dream regained dream, but brought to real life in a real place. We often see stories just like this devolve into cliches, but Save the Last Dance manages to mesh them into lives of people that we can see in our own lives.

The acting was on par with many of my all time favorites, not because the actors were huge names, but because the characters came off the screen as real and not one-sided.

Give this movie a chance.

Gun Shy is the story of a drug bust gone bad and the agent who has been caught in the middle of a world gone crazy. He falls in love when he least expects it, finds friends in a very unlikely group, and manages to keep going despite the circumstances.

This is a wonderful farce that happens to contain some really talented actors. Most notably Liam Neeson, who has been seen most recently as Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars: Episode I (1999). He plays Charlie, an undercover DEA agent who is going through a nervous breakdown. Oliver Platt who most recently caught my attention as Hector Cyr, an eccentric expert on crocodiles in Lake Placid (1999). Oliver plays Fulvio, the son-in-law of Italian Mobster Don Carmine Minetti. Sandra Bullock plays Judy Tipp, a nurse who takes ailing Charlie under her wing. Honorable mention in the movie goes to Mitch Pileggi, who does an excellent job portraying the somewhat shallow character of Dexter Helvenshaw, one of Charlie's superiors.

I must say I had never heard of director/writer Eric Blakeney. He has a great wit, lets hope he produces more. I found many scenes in this movie very compelling. One in the middle of the movie stands out.

Fulvio (Oliver Platt) comes home after a particularly stressful confrontation and enters the dingy, cluttered kitchen of the home he shares with his wife, Gloria. They are not having a good time of it and she angrily tells him he better shape up. She storms off and you expect him to blow up. He has that mad gleam in his eyes. He seizes a knife... ...and then throws it in the sink and starts cleaning the kitchen frantically, not stopping until it is spotless. Priceless.

Erin Brockovich is the first time I have ever watched Julia Roberts act and totally forgot she was Julia Roberts. This film gives us Erin - a young woman with no job, two kids, and no support. She seemingly has no family, she has been divorced twice, and she is bitter. Her initial attempt to get a job portrays the plight of a working mother with no formal education and no one to help very well. The car wreck that ironically saves her, comes out of nowhere - a wonderfully filmed surprise. SEE THIS FILM!! You will like it.