Who´s a Critic

Rarely does a film I'm watching stir my emotions. But, as I was watching Monster on DVD, I found myself cringing and eventually had to shut the film off. Of the thousands of films I've seen, this is the first time that I ever had to shut a film off and take a break as it was too real. I now know how people feel when they tell me they have to close the book from time to time because of the scenes I've written.

Patty Jenkins wrote and directed Monster, which is a powerful depiction of a woman who had been brutalized for years, and ended up becoming a murderess. Charlize Theron won the Oscar for her surreal protrayl of Aileen, who only needed to be loved. This seems to be a recurring theme in our society. The monsters of the world create more monsters as the brutalized mind twists and then turns the tables on their captors.

The problem, however, is that not only does the victim kill her captor, but, she goes on to kill people who hadn't done anything to her. Nevertheless, Monster is a gripping film.

Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years, staring Diahann Carroll and Ruby Dee, was the portrayal of two American women who never married and lived rich full lives. Both women overcame Jim Crow, misogyny, and prejudice and went on to become professional women long before the new Millennium. Carroll and Dee gave wonderful performances, which reminded me of the stellar performance that Cicely Tyson gave in The Autobiography of Ms. Jane Pittman. This film features Mykelti Williamson as Papa Delany, who was a slave and went on to educate himself and raised his girls to be confident, ambitious, and staunchly self-reliant. If you need to be inspired, this film fits the bill. Check it out!

Jamie Foxx. Taylor Hackford. Ray Charles. Three powerhouse performances in one movie. This film was flawless. Rarely have I seen a film where nearly every actor gave a memorable performance. There are no wasted scenes in this film! What I found particularly interesting is that it shows what people can overcome when they make up their minds to do so. My favorite lines: You're blind not stupid! You're not a cripple! So many Americans could learn from this inspirational film. I loved it!

Jamie Foxx, who also gave an astonishing performance in Collateral opposite Tom Cruise earlier this year, was nothing short of brilliant in this career making film. Foxx has come a long way since his years on the comedy show, In Living Color. Of this, there is no doubt. While I knew it was Jamie Foxx on the screen, I saw Ray Charles. I don't know if Foxx will get another opportunity to shine the way he did in Ray. I think it's safe to say, GIVE THE OSCAR TO MR. FOXX RIGHT NOW. No need to wait!

I was first acquainted with Taylor Hackford in the summer of 1980 in a small California town called Victorville. I was there TDY (temporary duty) at George Air Force Base for 45 days. The hotel I was staying at was showing a film called, The Idol Maker, starring Ray Sharkey, known for his television role in the series Wise Guy opposite Ken Wahl. That film was directed by none other than Taylor Hackford who just two years later went on to direct one of my favorite military films, An Officer and a Gentlemen. Hackford also directed Against All Odds, Delores Claiborne, The Devil's Advocate, White Nights, and Proof of Life. Ray easily blows away all of these career building films. This is his best film to date! GIVE HIM THE BEST DIRECTOR OSCAR!

Ray Charles never sounded better in this biopic. The soundtrack is worth the price of admission. Georgia on my mind, What'd I Say, Hit The Road Jack, I Can't Stop Loving You, and many more are featured in this film.

Other notable performances were given by Kerry Washington, who played Della Bea Robinson and new comer, Sharon Warren, who played Aretha Robinson, mother of the late great Ray Charles. Hopefully, these two women will be nominated for best supporting Oscars along with Foxx and Hackford.

The problem, however is that Hollywood is known for not rewarding people when they've earned it. They tend to give Oscars when they want you to have it, which, I find extremely irritating. Having said that, I'll take mine whenever they give it to me! LOL!

	Ray is a 5 star film.
	Take your family to see this!

Thermo Nuclear War. Unthinkable, huh? Well, as a former Air Force Command and Control Specialist with Top Secret security clearance, I can tell you that America is always in a state of war, whether it be overt i.e. Iraq, or covert i.e. the cold war we are in with China.

American men and women working for agencies like the National Security Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security, and the infamous Central Intelligence Agency, are in a constant battle against espionage, theft of Top Secret information, the theft of weapons and weapon systems, and the threat of germ warfare. Most Americans didn't know numerous Russian submarines were just off our shores, awaiting orders to launch their missiles.

The Missiles of October is a dramatization of the Cuban Missile Crisis and delivers a gripping peek into the inner workings of Whitehouse policy when world events, which are shaky at best, take us to the brink of colossal destruction. While the thought of nuclear war can be terrifying, just remember, America avoided World War III. Hopefully the situation in Iraq will not escalate and put our current Commander in Chief in the same situation as John F. Kennedy.

I was introduced to actor Tom Cruise when he costarred as David Shawn, a gung-ho red beret in the film TAPS. The film also featured up and coming actors Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn with film veteran George C. Scott as the Commandant of Bunker Hill Military Academy. I've been a huge fan of Cruise ever since I saw that 1981 film.

About a month or so prior to the release of Interview with a Vampire, a coworker told me the film was a best-selling Anne Rice Novel. After learning this, I borrowed the dramatized audio version from my local library to get the extra details I knew the film would leave out. If I could only use two words to describe my experience they would be BLOWN AWAY!

In fact, I was so taken in by the dramatized audio version of the book that I knew there was no way the Warner Brothers film could capture the essence of what I had already experienced. But, since I'm such a big fan of Cruise, I plunked down my hard earned greenbacks like everyone else, expecting a mediocre visual experience at best.

Could Cruise become the Vampire Lestat I had experienced? Could new comer Brad Pitt actually become Louis? And what of Claudia? How in the world could a young Kirsten Dunst

Well, not only did Cruise bring to life the Vampire Lestat, but Pitt and Dunst were equally enthralling in their roles as well. The casting was flawless. This is one to see as director Neil Jordan did an excellent job of bringing the pages of the best-seller to the big screen.

The 1994 film was shot on location in New Orleans, San Francisco, England, Paris, and also offers excellent performances from Antonio Banderas, Stephen Rea, Christian Slater, and new comer, Thandie Newton, who later starred opposite cruise in

This film has everything: love, hate, life, death, ecstasy, terror, and murder. Check this one out, y'all! If you've already seen it, see again, or get the audio version and get a different experience. You won't be disappointed.

After reading the following review, I knew Mr. Emerson's description of the plot was was much better than anything I could have written. Take a look.

-KLJ

A sumptuously mounted and photographed celebration of artful wickedness, betrayal, and sexual intrigue among depraved 18th-century French aristocrats, Dangerous Liaisons (based on Christopher Hampton's Les Liaisons Dangereuses) is seductively decadent fun. The villainous heroes are the Marquise De Merteuil (Glenn Close) and the Vicomte De Valmont (John Malkovich), who have cultivated their mutual cynicism into a highly developed and exquisitely mannered form of (in-)human _expression. Former lovers, they now fancy themselves rather like demigods whose mutual desires have evolved beyond the crudeness of sex or emotion. They ritualistically act out their twisted affections by engaging in elaborate conspiracies to destroy the lives of their less calculating acquaintances, daring each other to ever-more-dastardly acts of manipulation and betrayal. Why? Just because they can; it's their perverted way of getting get their kicks in a dead-end, pre-Revolutionary culture. Among their voluptuous and virtuous prey are fair-haired angels played by Michelle Pfeiffer and Uma Thurman, who have never looked more ripe for ravishing. When the Vicomte finds himself beset by bewilderingly genuine emotions for one of his victims, the Marquise considers it the ultimate betrayal and plots her heartless revenge. Dangerous Liaisons is a high-mannered revel for the actors, who also include Swoosie Kurtz, Mildred Natwick, and Keanu Reeves.

Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean, and Rock Hudson, bring to life Edna Ferber's epic bestselling novel: Giant. Two time Oscar winner, George Stevens, directs Ferber's classic vision. This family drama is full of action and romance. This is a long film (3hrs. 20 min.) so make sure you have plenty of popcorn and soft drinks availble.

Elizabeth Taylor plays a fiesty southern belle, who marries Bick Benedict (Rock Hudson), a ranch baron. At first, life is tough for the city girl. Add to that, her husband's sister still wants to be the woman of the house and believes Taylor is too soft and vulnerable for rough Texas Terrain and a power stuggle ensues.

James Dean plays Jett Rink, a poor cattle hand who inherits a few acres from the Benedicts. When Jett finds black gold underneath his property and becomes an overnight millionaire, and can have everything he wants, he goes after Taylor, which is the only thing he ever wanted.

The last film in Hollywood of director Douglas Sirk

You will never find a more chillingly suspenseful, perversely funny, or viciously satirical political thriller than The Manchurian Candidate, based on the novel by Richard Condon (author of

The Manchurian Candidate, a classic of paranoid cinema from the 1960s, gets a cunning update, rife with hot-topic references to corporate war profiteering and electronic voting machines. Major Ben Marco (Denzel Washington,

Description: Serving together in the Persian Gulf War, Captain Bennett Marco and Sgt. Raymond Shaw were part of a platoon of soldiers kidnapped and brainwashed. Ten years later, Shaw gears up for his vice presidential campaign while Marco eventually remembers being kidnapped and discovers Shaw's powerful mother played a big part in that scheme. Determined to reveal the truth behind everything, Marco must first convince Shaw that the brainwashing really happened.

After one episode of The Wire you'll be hooked. After three, you'll be astonished by the precision of its storytelling. After viewing all 13 episodes of the HBO series' remarkable first season, you'll be cheering a bona-fide American masterpiece. Series creator David Simon was a veteran crime reporter from The Baltimore Sun who cowrote the book that inspired TV's

The show's split-perspective plotting is so richly layered, so breathtakingly authentic and based on finely drawn characters brought to life by a perfect ensemble cast, that it defies concise description. Simon, Burns, and their cowriters control every intricate aspect of the unfolding epic; directors are top-drawer (including Clark Johnson, helmer of

Solidly built around a subtle yet commanding performance by Don Cheadle, Hotel Rwanda emerged as one of the most highly-praised dramas of 2004. In a role that demands his quietly riveting presence in nearly every scene, Cheadle plays real-life hero Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager in the Rwandan capital of Kigali who in 1994 saved 1,200 Rwandan "guests" from certain death during the genocidal clash between tribal Hutus, who slaughtered a million victims, and the horrified Tutsis, who found safe haven or died. Giving his best performance since his breakthrough role in

With the release of Wiseguy on DVD, one of the best TV series of the 1980s gets a new lease on life. Long before Donnie Brasco brought similar drama to the big screen, Ken Wahl brought charisma, credibility, and chutzpah to his small-screen role as Vincent Terranova, a handsome 30-year-old agent with the FBI's Organized Crime Bureau. As conceived by cocreators Stephen Cannell (of The Rockford Files and The A-Team fame) and Ken Lupo, Wiseguy followed an innovative "story-arc" structure, allowing Vinnie's deep-cover missions to last only as long as necessary to bring each case to a sensible conclusion. Since copied by countless TV shows, this unique approach to storytelling attracted a devoted following of viewers addicted to the self-contained plots that forced Vinnie, his sourpuss OCB handler Frank McPike (Jonathan Banks), and disabled covert liaison Dan "Lifeguard" Burroughs (played by double-amputee Jim Byrnes) to achieve their objectives within 6 to 10 hourlong episodes.

Season 1, Part 1--the first of six Wiseguy DVD sets--includes the entire nine-episode arc (plus pilot) in which Vinnie infiltrates the New Jersey mob family of Sonny Steelgrave, a silk-suited kingpin played by Ray Sharkey in his finest TV role. Their brotherly relationship poses a moral dilemma for Vinnie (giving the arc its dramatic core and primary source of suspense), and Wiseguy earned its reputation as a well-written series that favored character-driven tension while providing the requisite pulp fiction (i.e. occasional murder and mayhem) that kept viewers and advertisers happy. While the DVD packaging gives bogus equal billing to Annette Bening (who appears here in one pivotal episode), her pre-stardom appearance is indicative of the show's consistently high standards in writing, casting, and stylish direction. The styles may be dated (including poodle-puff hairdos for women, including Bening), but there's not a weak episode in the bunch, including the stand-alone shows (involving domestic crises for McPike and Burroughs) that allowed character growth beyond the story-arc structure.

After the intense "Sonny Steelgrave" arc of first-season episodes, the producers of Wiseguy faced the challenge of topping themselves, and they did it by casting a relatively unknown New York stage actor named Kevin Spacey, who proceeded to chew up the scenery as only a future Oscar®-winner could. But Spacey's not the only reason for the giddy success of the "Mel Profitt" arc, which finds OCB agent Vinnie Terranova (Ken Wahl) teaming up with sociopathic assassin Roger Lococco (William Russ) in an effort to infiltrate the global drugs-and-guns empire of the Proffitt siblings Mel (Spacey), a "manic-depressive genius with acute paranoia," and his codependent sister Susan (Joan Severance), who keeps her incestuously devoted brother happy by injecting home-brewed narcotics between his toes (hence giving Spacey his trademark line, "Only the toes knows!").

TV audiences in 1988 had never seen such a twisted sibling relationship, and there's plenty of eccentric chemistry between Spacey and then-newcomer Severance, who later developed a loyal male following as a B-movie sexpot. Completing their triangle of terror is Russ, playing Lococco as a tormented Vietnam vet with a massive chip on his shoulder, luring Vinnie into a life of luxury and lethal behavior, thus complicating matters considerably for Vinnie's covert handlers McPike (Jonathan Banks) and Lifeguard (Jim Byrnes), who grow increasingly worried as Vinnie gains Mel Profitt's hard-won trust. The quality of these 12 episodes remains consistently high as the Profitts reach "psychotic critical mass," leading to Mafia connections and a new direction for Vinnie's loving mother (well-played by Elsa Raven). Through it all, Wahl (who proves himself a man of few words in a sparse one-episode commentary) maintains his strong presence as a leading man, generously allowing Spacey's rising star to shine. Wiseguy still had some highlights in its future, but the "Mel Profitt" arc represents the series at its best.

Clint Eastwood's 25th film as a director, Million Dollar Baby stands proudly with

The U.S. nuclear sub Tigerfish churns toward the North Pole. Its mission: rescue the imperiled members of weather outpost Ice Station Zebra. On board are Cmdr. Ferraday and his crew, several unexpected arrivals with secret orders and enough suspicions, suspense and twists to make Ice Station Zebra an engrossing espionage thriller. The Cold War heats up as John Sturges

Movie studios, by and large, avoid controversial subjects like race the way you might avoid a hive of angry bees. So it's remarkable that Crash even got made; that it's a rich, intelligent, and moving exploration of the interlocking lives of a dozen Los Angeles residents--black, white, latino, Asian, and Persian--is downright amazing. A politically nervous district attorney (Brendan Fraser,

Ending the most popular film epic in history, Star Wars: Episode III, Revenge of the Sith is an exciting, uneven, but ultimately satisfying journey. Picking up the action from Episode II, Attack of the Clones as well as the animated Clone Wars series, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and his apprentice, Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), pursue General Grievous into space after the droid kidnapped Supreme Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid).

It's just the latest maneuver in the ongoing Clone Wars between the Republic and the Separatist forces led by former Jedi turned Sith Lord Count Dooku (Christopher Lee). On another front, Master Yoda (voiced by Frank Oz) leads the Republic's clone troops against a droid attack on the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk. All this is in the first half of Episode III, which feels a lot like Episodes I and II. That means spectacular scenery, dazzling dogfights in space, a new fearsome villain, lightsaber duels, romantic dialogue, goofy humor, and hordes of faceless clone troopers fighting hordes of faceless battle droids.

But then it all changes.

After setting up characters and situations for the first two and a half movies, Episode III finally comes to life. The Sith Lord in hiding unleashes his long-simmering plot to take over the Republic, and an integral part of that plan is to turn Anakin away from the Jedi and toward the Dark Side of the Force. Unless you've been living under a rock the last 10 years, you know that Anakin will transform into the dreaded Darth Vader and face an ultimate showdown with his mentor, but that doesn't matter. In fact, a great part of the fun is knowing where things will wind up but finding out how they'll get there. The end of this prequel trilogy also should inspire fans to want to see the original movies again. Because Episode III is a beginning as well as an end, it will trigger fond memories as it ties up threads to the originals.

Episode III is easily the best of the new trilogy. It's also the first one to be rated PG-13 for the intense battles and darker plot. It was probably impossible to live up to the decades' worth of pent-up hype George Lucas faced for the Star Wars prequel trilogy, but Episode III makes us once again glad to be "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..."

Out of Sight scored critical raves, but its title sums up the theatrical fate of Steven Soderbergh's coolly comic crime caper and misfit romance based on Elmore Leonard's novel. But this is the sort of buried treasure home video was created to rescue.

George Clooney comes into his own as a leading man in the role of inveterate bank robber Jack Foley. Incarcerated, he uses another inmate's prison break as a cover for his own escape. Waiting for him, according to plan, is his partner, Buddy (Ving Rhames). Also waiting for him, not according to plan, is federal agent Karen Sisco (the ravishing Jennifer Lopez). She finds herself disarmed in more ways than one when she is deposited in the getaway car's trunk with Jack. But that doesn't stop her from joining the task force created to capture him, while he plans "One last heist."

Out of Sight is a rich, entertaining film, stylish without being showy, faithful to the integrity of Leonard's potent dialogue and quirky characters, and seamlessly acted by a dream ensemble. Standouts include Albert Brooks as convicted insider trader Richard Ripley, who while in prison brags to the wrong people that he has $5 million in uncut diamonds hidden in his house; Don Cheadle as Maurice (don't call him "Snoopy") Miller, with whom Jack warily teams up to steal said diamonds; Dennis Farina as Karen's protective father (his idea of a birthday gift is a Sig-Hauer .38); and, in unbilled cameos, Michael Keaton, reprising his Jackie Brown role as FBI agent Ray Nicolet, and Samuel L. Jackson.