For the month of March...

Best Film of the Month: A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Worst Film of the Month: The Number 23 (2007)

March 31, 2007

Meet the Robinsons (2007)
Director: Stephen J. Anderson
Writers: Michelle Bochner, Stephen J. Anderson, Robert L. Baird, Jon Bernstein, Daniel Gerson, Nathan Greno, Don Hall, William Joyce, Shirley Pierce, and Aurian Redson
Starring: Angela Bassett, Daniel Hansen, Jordan Fry, and Matthew Josten
Co-Starring: John H. H. Ford, Dara McGarry, Tom Kenny, and Laurie Metcalf
Description: Lewis an orphan wants to see what his mother looked like. So he invents a machine that looks through your brain so you can see your memories. But this weird kid says he's from the future and warns him about a guy in a bowler hat. The bowler hat guy messes with his invention and it fails. He decides that he's a failure and no one wants him. But the kid that warned him about the guy is here on a mission to find the bowler hat guy that wants to destroy Lewis. To prove he's from the future he takes lewis to the future. But the time machine breaks and he's stuck in the future until he fixes it. In the meantime he spends quality time with the family. But the bowler hat guy is about to alter time and it's up to Lewis to save the future.
Rating: B
In a word... suprising.

March 27, 2007

What About Bob? (1991)
Director: Frank Oz
Writers: Alvin Sargent, Laura Ziskin, and Tom Schulman
Starring: Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss
Co-Starring: Julie Hagerty, Charlie Korsmo, and Kathryn Erbe
Description: Bob Wiley is a neurotic and manipulative man who has a habit of clinging onto his therapists. His last one, not being able to deal with him, sends him to Leo Marvin. After having just one session, Bob thinks the world of Dr. Marvin. However, the doctor's leaving to spend the rest of the summer with his family, which throws Bob into utter despair. He calls the doctor constantly demanding to see him, but the doctor says he is on vacation and cuts Bob off. He manages to find out where he is and goes there. The doctor's family takes a liking to him but the doctor feels that he is just intrusive. And no matter what he does, Bob just won't go away, and everybody thinks that Leo is being mean.
Rating: B+
In a word... hilarious.

March 25, 2007

A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Writer: Anthony Burgess and Stanley Kubrick
Starring: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, and Warren Clarke
Co-Starring:Adrienne Corri, Carl Duering, and Aubrey Morris
Description: In a futuristic Britain, a gang of teenagers go on the rampage every night, beating and raping helpless victims. After one of the boys quells an uprising in the gang, they knock him out and leave him for the police to find. He agrees to try "aversion therapy" to shorten his jail sentence. When he is eventually let out, he hates violence, but the rest of his gang members are still after him.
Rating: A
In a word... disturbing.

March 22, 2007

Walk the Line (2005)
Director: James Mangold
Writer: Johnny Cash, Patrick Carr, Gill Dennis, and James Mangold
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon
Co-Starring: Ginnifer Goodwin, Robert Patrick, and Dallas Roberts
Description: Johnny Cash grew up in Arkansas, and served in the Air Force in Germany, where he bought a guitar. He returned from the war and married. Singing and playing with two other men, he cut a record in Memphis. His reputation growing from airplay and live performances, Cash became a star, touring with the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis and others. On tour, he suffered the effects of drug addiction. He also met June Carter, who would later become his wife. Responding in part to the fan mail he received from prisoners, Cash played a legendary concert for the inmates at Folsom Prison in California.
Rating: A
In a word... essential.

March 17, 2007

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Director: Michael Gondry
Writer: Charlie Kaufman, Michael Gondry, and Pierre Bismuth
Starring: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Elijah Wood, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, and Tom Wilkinson
Co-Starring: Gerry Robert Byrne, Jane Adams, David Cross, and Thomas Jay Ryan
Description: A man awakes disheveled; impulsively, he skips work, heading instead to the shore. On this chilly February day, a woman in orange, hair dyed blue, chats him up: she's Clementine, he's Joel, shy and sad; by day's end, he likes her. The next night she takes him to the frozen Charles River. After, as he drops her off, she asks to sleep at his place, and she runs up to get her toothbrush. Strange things occur: their meeting was not entirely chance, they have a history neither remembers. Our seeing how the lacunae came to be and their discovery of the memory loss take the rest of the film.
Rating: A
In a word... speechless.

March 16, 2007

Howard the Duck (1986)
Director: Willard Huyck
Writer: Stever Gerber, Willard Huyck, and Gloria Hatz
Starring: Lea Thompson, Jeffrey Jones, Tim Robbins, Ed Gale, and Chip Zein
Co-Starring: Paul Guilfoyle, Liz Sagal, and Dominque Davalos
Description: A scientific experiment unknowingly brings extraterrestrial life forms to the Earth through a laser beam. First is the cigar smoking drake Howard from the duck's planet. A few kids try to keep him from the greedy scientists and help him back to his planet. But then a much less friendly being arrives through the beam...
Rating: D+
In a word... insipid.