"Sin City" Movie Review

Robert Rodriguez' lavish and lovingly created animation of Frank Miller's "Sin City" is so unfailingly true to its gory, gritty source that it has disturbed almost as many viewers as it has delighted. Creatively cast and brilliantly rendered, it truly has the look of a graphic novel come to life as a living, breathing comic strip. Seen in pristine digital projection, brilliant hues are splashed across film noir shadows and stark blacks and whites are gloriously luminescent. Even the blood that spills often and profusely is used to paint the character of each victim: the purity of white, the mortality of red, the cowardice of yellow.

The ensemble cast, which includes Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Benicio Del Toro, Carla Gugino, Mickey Rourke, Rosario Dawson and Clive Owen performed their scenes against a green-screen backdrop, where director Rodriquez later enveloped them with a computer generated environment that feels as right and as real as an on-location shoot. Ultraviolence that makes "A Clockwork Orange" pale in comparison seems to fill every other sequence of "Sin City," and contrary to the comments of some that the film directs its brutality at women, the truth is that the men endure the majority of the merciless carnage. Gunshots, beatings, decapitations and most famously, castrations befall nearly every character at one time or another.

Corruption and cynicism drench the souls of every inhabitant of "Sin City," save the characters of good cop Hartigan (Willis) and good girl Nancy (Alba). All seem resigned to their places in hell. Willis brings his gift for playing world-weary protectors to his character; Rourke and Owen portray the sympathetic anti-heroes; Rutger Hauer and Elijah Wood appear briefly but memorably as two faces of evil incarnate. As for the women, Jaime King is haunting as a classic Noir femme fatale, and newcomer Devon Aoki needs nothing more than her otherworldly eurasian looks to make the samurai sword wielding angel of death Miho an instant icon.

"House of Wax" Movie Review

Director Jaume Collet-Serra's re-imagining of the classic Vincent Price film "House of Wax" succeeds despite a number of reasons why it shouldn't. Rather than falling prey to disappointing comparisons to the original, this version is so different in tone, story and characterization as to be a remake in name only.

This version comes late in the post-"Friday the Thirteenth" era, in which a band of hapless teenagers is predictably split into easily victimized groups before being decimated in creatively horrific ways.

Although this might have been cause for the resulting story to be a stale yawner, Collet-Serra and writer Chad Hayes take the risky course of allowing the audience to spend an unexpectedly long time with the cast as they make their way on a road trip to a football game in a neighboring city, detouring off the main road to find the eponymous House.

What results is a dynamite stick of a movie with a very long fuse, and an intense eventual payoff.

The tone of the film mixes realistic, almost mundane settings with over the top, nightmarishly surreal sequences and Grand Guignol violence. The filmmakers tip their intention by including a sequence from 1962's garish, gothic film classic "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane," playing at a dead town's movie theater while moldering corpses encased in wax sit mutely staring at the screen.

The second surprisingly avoided pitfall is the performance of Paris Hilton as a friend of the lead character, played by Elisha Cuthbert. Paris not only acquits herself adequately, but actually manages to elicit sympathy when she meets an especially brutal end. Ironically, her role in an explicit videotape also plays a bitter part in the denouement of this shocking tale.

Surprisingly stunning special effects, creative situations and some unexpected plot twists make "House of Wax" an entertaining little shocker.

"High Tension" Movie Review

Give Lionsgate credit for bringing the bloody French film "High Tension" to the big screen in America. Unfortunately, blame must also go to someone for the decisions that make this theatrical release a disappointment.

First, by dubbing most of the original french dialogue into english, there's an immediate disconnect from a sense that we're watching events as they happen, although the gritty, cinéma vérité quality of the photography goes a long way toward instilling a sense of realism, and behind the poorly dubbed and acted voices, the acting is quite good.

Secondly, besides its ultraviolence, "High Tension" is touted for its twist ending. Few viewers are likely to see the twist coming, but only because it is so illogical, and seemingly implausible.

Seldom has a surprise ending instilled such a sense of bewilderment and inspired universal groans. The revelation explains several seemingly puzzling behaviors earlier in the film, but it also creates a host of inconsistencies and impossibilities that require more thought to explain away than most viewers will care to spend energy on.

As in nearly every contemporary horror film, homage is paid to a dozen other films, here including "Jeepers Creepers," "The Shining," "Psycho," and most obviously, "Texas Chainsaw Massacre." The chainsaw scene in "High Tension" involves the Goliath of such power tools, one of the most grisly murders ever, and one of the most harrowing film sequences.

Some sequences in "High Tension" have a quality similar to the original "Night of the Living Dead," complete with unnerving sound design in place of a traditional movie score. The choice to edit nearly a minute of extreme violence in order to avoid an NC-17 rating may also have lost a few unforgetable shocks, but High Tension is still an extreme gore-fest in this R-rated version.

"High Tension" tells the tale of two young French coeds, Marie and Alex. The two friends drive far into the quiet countryside where they intend to study at the home of Alex's parents. On the night of their arrival, Marie watches the systematic murder of her hosts and the abduction of her friend by a brutish stranger. So begins a night in which the seemingly fortunate survivor tries again and again to rescue the bound and gagged Alex before she meets the same fate as her family.

The consensus of those who have seen the original, uncut, subtitled version of "High Tension" (which played in England under the title "Switchblade Romance") is that this theatrical release is best skipped in favor of the original on DVD.

"Batman Begins" Movie Review

From the windswept, snow covered mountains of the Himalayas to the dark, labyrinthine streets and alleys of Gotham, "Batman Begins" creates a fascinating, compelling world in which the birth and evolution of the Dark Knight is not only believable, but almost inevitable. Screenwriter David S. Goyer meticulously crafts the history of a mere mortal who invents and earns a mythic personna, showing us step by step how Bruce Wayne acquired his vast wealth, his passion for justice, his physical prowess and his arsenal of crime-fighting technology.

As the orphaned and disillusioned Bruce Wayne returns home from self-imposed exile in the Tibetan wilderness, he finds the city of Gotham fallen ever deeper into corruption and decay, with power-mad tyrants engaged in a tangled game in which each murderous psychopath is the pawn of another. The layers of complicity are revealed, until a plan to destroy Gotham by turning it's citizens into hallucinating psychotics is discovered to be the ultimate goal of a consummate, malevolent manipulator.

"Batman Begins" features an especially impressive cast, with the outstanding Liam Neeson as a mysterious mentor; Michael Caine as the Wayne family major-domo, Alfred; Morgan Freeman as Batman's military equipment supplier, and Rutger Hauer as Bruce Wayne's charming but cutthroat rival for control of Wayne Enterprises.

Less believable than the idea of a billionaire crime-fighter in a bat-suit is the talented but miscast Katie Holmes as a Gotham district attorney, who strives in vain to bring as much seriousness to her role as she can. Gary Oldman is always a welcome sight in film, but here his gifts for intensity and eccentricity are somewhat wasted in the part of an honest but bland Gotham cop. In an effective supporting role, Cillian Murphy channels the essence of both Christian Slater and James Spader as The Scarecrow, while Tom Wilkinson appears as a fun to watch gangster kingpin.

"Land of the Dead" Review

When "Night of the Living Dead" was first unleashed upon an unprepared America in 1968, Roger Ebert famously described the effect it had on an audience in his essay/review which was published in Reader's Digest.

"The kids in the audience were stunned... The movie had stopped being delightfully scary about halfway through and had become unexpectedly terrifying. There was a little girl ... sitting very still in her seat and crying. I don't think the younger kids really knew what hit them."

The director of that brilliant cinematic nightmare was George Romero, who went on to film the successful sequels "Dawn of the Dead" and "Day of the Dead," and who created an undying sub-genre of horror films based on the mythos of his ghoulish zombies.

As a zombie-hunting splatter-fest, and as a human flesh-eating spectacle, this latest chapter in Romero's undead chronicles delivers the goods. It's in the creation of a believable, post-apocalyptic society that this tale feels stilted and stale, in these stretches of needless exposition feeling more like a mediocre John Carpenter film than classic Romero. At least in Carpenter's "Escape from New York," the character of Snake Plissken was an engagingly bad-ass hero.

In "Land of the Dead," Simon Baker, last seen in "The Ring 2", is too goodie-two-shoes by half, as the tough but sensitive leader Riley. By the end of the movie, he's even showing compassion for the zombies, a compassion that Romero himself seems to have acquired in his 25 years among them.

In the final reel of "Land of the Dead," the zombie leader Big Daddy is presented as a sort of undead Moses, leading his people to the Promised Land: a luxury high-rise condo called Fiddler's Green. (As a character in his own right, Big Daddy is a classic, like a cross between the cover-ghoul of Lucio Fulci's Zombie and a Uruk Hai General from "Lord of the Rings.")

The title of Roger Ebert's essay was "Just Another Horror Movie - Or Is It?" Of course, "Night of the Living Dead" was not just another horror movie. Unfortunately, "George A. Romero's Land of the Dead" is.

"Dark Water" Movie Review

In an era of horror films whose success at the box office seems to hinge on graphic portrayals of mutilations, it's always encouraging when a new film promises mystery. This is exactly what "Dark Water" promises; a chilling, haunting, "who's the ghost?" mystery. But promises, promises … it falls far short of the mark.

Viewers who have never seen "The Ring" or "The Grudge" may find something uniquely atmospheric and startling about source writer Koji Suzuki's visual motifs: pools of water as a metaphor for death; geysers of water for rage; ghostly, wide-eyed children and the maternal women who are compelled to understand why they haunt the living. Those who have seen the aforementioned films of Suzuki's work are likely to find it all tediously familiar.

While in concept, "dark water" is imagined to have an eerie and sinister potential, it is squandered in this movie and relegated to a simpering, damp, pointless pool of swamp muck. Drowning in that muck is a mismatched cast whose reach for emotional expression is all too often out of sync with the moment. The viewer is propelled through a series of obvious and divisive setups, but far from building a mystery, they end up being clumsy spoilers that leave nothing to the imagination and even less to anticipate.

Screenwriter Rafael Yglesias has created a patchwork of pointless situations meant to cause the viewer to believe there may be a mystery after all. But in every instance, one is left annoyed at having been taken down a very short path which leads to nothing but a dead end. Each dead end is a reminder that this film is truly void of mystery (subtle or overt).

What damages this film even more are the unrealistic responses from the characters and the portrayal of the location. The most obvious observations aggravatingly go unnoticed, or worse, are inexplicably accepted by the characters. The result is to prevent us from relating to their experiences and attaining that sought after moment of movie nirvana in which we find ourselves magically taken along for the ride and completely engaged. For those eight million or more New Yorkers who will watch this movie knowing the reality of the location, the inability to relate will be even more complete. Roosevelt Island, which is presented as a decrepit, low rent maze of housing projects, is in actuality a gentrified neighborhood of artists and young professionals.

"Dark Water" centers around the character of Dahlia Williams, a soon to be divorced parent, who has spent her young adulthood coming to terms with the emotional scars left by the neglect and abandonment suffered upon her in childhood by an alcoholic mother. The potential for horror in the emotional breakdown of a fragile woman is often hinted at in "Dark Water," but the literally manifest phenomena of supernatural events overwhelms the subtler psychological possibilites for terror.

If "Dark Water" had chronicled a woman's descent into madness, as in Roman Polanski's classic shocker "Repulsion," the result might have been far more realistically and unforgettably terrifying than a tenement full of grungy water and possessed plumbing.

Go see this movie for yourself, but bring a towel. You'll want to dry off after this soaking in "Dark Water."

"War of the Worlds" Review

With "War of the Worlds," Stephen Spielberg has created the first film of 2005 that virtually demands more than one viewing on the big screen. It's a thrill ride that demands a second go-round, to re-experience the sheer magnitude of its sound and fury.

At last, this is the dark side of "E.T." and "Close Encounters," a science fiction fantasy with the brutal and graphic death-dealing of "Jaws" and "Jurassic Park" on an apocalyptic scale. The degree to which special effects have been integrated into the live action is truly impressive, as the towering, walking war machines of an unknown extra-terrestrial society methodically destroy and dominate a helpless humanity.

Unlike recent remakes of classic films like "Planet of the Apes" and "The Time Machine," in which their filmmakers seemed shockingly oblivious to what made them originally successful, Spielberg's "War of the Worlds" is almost reverently true to its predecessors and to its source. Changes in plot and character are for the most part well thought-out and reasonable.

By casting Tom Cruise as a divorced, working-class everyman, we see the panic and carnage from the perspective of a terrorized refugee trying desperately to stay ahead of a wave of destruction. Gone are references to Martians or cylinders falling from the sky. There is no nuclear option invoked. Perhaps out of sensitivity to memories of the Twin Towers falling, there are no grand tableaus of famous buildings being pulverized. There is only a man and his children where they live and where they flee, with unimaginable horrors increasing moment by moment.

The design of the alien war machines is a brilliant tribute to H.G. Wells' original concept, and many of the set pieces that are fondly remembered from the classic 1953 version are reimagined and satisfyingly updated. As a further nod of reverence, Spielberg has also cast Gene Barry, the heroic scientist from the original film, and Ann Robinson, his then-obligatory love interest, in small cameo parts.

"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" Movie Review

Tim Burton's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" is a delicious, colorful, twisted piece of eye-candy, and a feast of brilliant, delightful characters who will be savored forever like a Willy Wonka Everlasting Gobstopper.

For the first time in recent memory, Johnny Depp is not the main reason to see a film in which he performs. "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" features such a perfectly cast ensemble of adult and child actors that even a star of Depp's charisma and eccentricity doesn't come close to outshining them.

For the few readers who are unfamiliar with the story, it concerns a reclusive and magically inventive chocolatier named Willy Wonka, who offers the five winners of a contest an opportunity for a once-in-a-lifetime tour of his Factory. Five golden tickets are hidden in Wonka Bars and shipped all over the world, where they are discovered by four exceedingly obnoxious children, and one uncommonly good little boy. What follows is a tale of bizarre fantasy and wickedly just desserts.

In portraying the characters in "Charlie," Burton has skipped across time to dress his his characters in the trappings of the eras that suit them. The kind-hearted but poverty stricken Charlie Bucket is a character straight out of Charles Dickens; the piggish Augustus Gloop would be at home in a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm; Veruca Salt is a spoiled child from a wealthy, mid-twentieth century industrialist family; Violet Beauregarde is pure Reagan Era, 1980's 'me generation,' while Mike Teavee is a child of today, obsessed with video games and precociously logical. Willy Wonka himself is inexplicably presented as an Edwardian-dressed dandy of the 1960's, spouting expressions like 'let's boogie,' although nothing in his flash-backed childhood presages it. The parents and families of the children are also exceptionally cast, particularly Noah Taylor and David Kelly, as Father and Grandfather Bucket, and Missi Pyle as Mrs. Beauregarde, heretofore seen in Burton's Big Fish as Mildred, and as the quirky alien girl in Galaxy Quest.

Tim Burton has always reveled in playing dark against bright. His visual esthetic finds comfort in misty grays and embracing shadows, while having a childlike delight in garishly intense colors. His new film offers perfect tableaus in which to use his full palette. The depictions of the London in which both Charlie and Willy Wonka live are perfectly rendered in muted tones, all the more effective as prelude to the electric kool-aid acid trip that is the world of the Chocolate Factory. Adding to the hallucinatory effect of Tim Burton's vision is his choice to portray the diminutive Oompa-Loompas as an homage to the specatacle of Bollywood musicals from India.

Much of Roald's Dahl's original story is faithfully captured here, including the sarcastic banter between the bratty kids and Willy Wonka, although perhaps no film could capture the non-stop inventiveness and wonderful wordplay of the book, which is rightfully a classic. To his credit, Burton has used Roald Dahl's own lyrics for the taunting songs of the Oompas that punctuate each of the children's misfortunes.

And oh yes, there is Johnny Depp. The actor's uninhibited playfulness and seldom-seen gift for slapstick is especially entertaining for children, while Willy Wonka's sadistic way of dispensing juvenile justice will forever please their elders, for whom this fantasy is truly intended.

"Skeleton Key" Movie Review

"Skeleton Key," a southern gothic tale of suspense and horror, offers fine performances by Kate Hudson and Gena Rowlands, some vividly disturbing imagery, and an ending that is well worth the slowly paced and meticulously crafted set up. Not since the 1987 film "Angel Heart" has the premise of black magic and spiritualism been used with such chilling effectiveness.

Hudson stars as Caroline Ellis, an idealistic hospice worker, who takes on the job of caring for a paralyzed, elderly man named Ben (played by John Hurt) in the decrepit old mansion in which he lives with his wife, Violet (Rowlands). On the occasion of Caroline's interview for the job of Ben's caretaker, she overhears an aside from Violet regarding her not 'understanding the house,' spoken to the family lawyer. The curiosity inspired by this remark and by the mounting idiosyncrasies of life inside the decaying mansion leads Caroline to unlock secrets hidden within that lead to horrific revelations.

Early on in her exploration of the old mansion's past, Hudson's character learns about the differences between hoodoo (African-Based control and healing magic, also called conjure) and voodoo (the religion of hoodoo practitioners). She is told that for hoodoo to work, the conjure subject must believe in its potency. The steps leading up to the final act present how Caroline, a practical, non-superstitious woman is ensnared into a potentially deadly belief in witchcraft. That we, the audience, come to believe as well is one of the saving graces of Skeleton Key. Layers of meaning and levels of understanding come to explain a heretofore hidden maze of logic and manipulation in the movie's final scenes.

Although not a classic thriller, Skeleton Key succeeds as an entertaining and ultimately satisfying diversion through seldom explored territory.

"Red Eye" Movie Review

Rachel McAdams faces demons past and present in Wes Craven's thriller at 30,000 feet. McAdams and Cillian Murphy are teamed with excellent results in "Red-Eye." McAdams, well known from her roles in "Wedding Crashers," and "Sherlock Holmes," and Murphy, who was so impressive as The Scarecrow in "Batman Begins," have a mesmerizing chemistry as they shift roles and emotions, he from charming stranger to cold blooded killer, she from guarded but increasingly charmed object of flirtation to horror stricken but ultimately indomitable hostage.

With an impressive economy of strokes, McAdams' character Lisa Reisert is painted as a sympathetic woman of depth with more than a few emotional and physical scars. Murphy, as the terrorist-for-hire Jackson Rippner, is conversely a frighteningly blank slate, a conscienceless cipher not unlike the serial killer Ted Bundy, who can beguile in one moment and butcher in the next.

"Red-Eye" is not a supernatural horror film, as its effective but misleading original trailer suggested, but rather a taut, expertly crafted suspense drama involving a hired killer and an innocent girl who has the power to set up his very high-profile victim: the head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Director Craven has created many classic horror films ("A Nightmare on Elm Street," "The Serpent and the Rainbow," "Scream") and some very disappointing ones ("Shocker," "Vampire in Brooklyn"). The success of "Red-Eye" completely redeems the dog of a werewolf movie that was his previous film, "Cursed." "Red-Eye" is involving from beginning to end, in part because of Craven's assured direction and to an even greater degree because of the skills of his lead actors. Again and again, he shows his exceptionally gifted and good-looking actors in close-up, allowing their expressive faces to fascinate as they play out a dangerous game of cat and mouse.

Audiences will be happy they went along for the ride with "Red-Eye."

"The Brothers Grimm" Review

In spite of being a nearly unwatchable train wreck of high concepts ("Sleepy Hollow" meets "Ghostbusters" meets "Shreck") there's perhaps a half hour of enjoyable entertainment in "The Brothers Grimm." It's simply not worth sifting through the garbage heap of director Terry Gilliam's imagination to find it.

Of course, Gilliam has based his reputation on over-the-top art direction and irreverent humor, but in returning yet again to his penchant for lampooning medieval romanticism with revolting squalor, "Brothers Grimm" hits the wall with a resounding thud.

In nearly every way, the film is simply a mess.

As a feast for the eyes, it's a rather putrid one, literally crawling with bugs and laced with a half dozen grotesqueries that might have been more palatable in an outright horror movie, but which seem sickeningly out of place alongside the Grimm brothers' playful whimsy.

The saving grace of the film is actress Monica Bellucci as The Mirror Queen, who works the same charm she used in infusing The Matrix Reloaded with much needed seductive magic.

Even jokes that worked in the movie's trailer with the benefit of revised timing fall flat in the context of the film itself. By trying to be twice as clever as the films that came before it, "The Brothers Grimm" succeeds in being only half as good. The expression 'too much is never enough' is an all too apt description for Terry Gilliam's style of heavy handed cleverness.

For example: setting the story in Germany is not enough when it can be set in French Occupied Germany, a lame joke that opens a floodgate of even worse 'French' and 'German' jokes; next, the heroes' horses cannot be simply chased away by hostile soldiers when they can have their haunches set on fire to make them run; a dungeon filled with threatening, spinning blades cannot be used to its full potential unless a kitten is 'accidentally' kicked into the machinery for a little slapstick comedy.

Grim, indeed. A more appropriate title might have been "The Brothers Groan."

"Eternal" Movie Review

Like the vampire itself, tales of vampirism are eternal and eternally fascinating. In the age of cinema, that fascination has made less-than-perfect vampire films like "Underworld" and "Queen of the Damned" addictingly watchable. And vampire films are almost never perfect. It's rare that the genre attracts the kind of talent and budget necessary to create "The Hunger" or "Interview With the Vampire."

Occasionally, a film like "The Lost Boys" or "Fright Night" will receive Hollywood studio backing and moderately generous funding and become a classic. "Eternal," a Canadian film by first-time directors Wilhelm Liebenberg and Federico Sanchez, belongs to another realm of guilty pleasures, the low-budget but lavishly art-directed foreign-made horror film.

Like the vampire films from England's Hammer Studios, or Ted Nicolaou's "The Vampire Journals," "Eternal" is often gorgeous to look at, lurid, melodramatic and erotic. Extravagant sets and exotic locations are used to maximum effect, and atmospheric lighting and lush colors and costumes abound. Like many of the Hammer films, it also injects elements of sadomasochism and lesbian sex into the story.

"Eternal" continues the infamous tale of Countess Erzebet Bathory, the real-life 17th century noblewoman who was convicted and imprisoned for the sadistic torture and murder of over 650 victims. According to legend, Bathory began her violent obsessions as a brutalizer of her female servants, but ultimately came to be convinced that by bathing herself with the blood of her victims, she could retain the appearance of youth. History records that Erzebet perished after living her last three years in solitary confinement, imprisoned alone in a small room of her castle.

"Eternal" tells a different story, in which the Blood Countess survived through her belief in the restorative power of blood, filling her with the youth of her enamoured lovers. Living under the assumed name of Elizabeth Kane, Bathory is living in an opulent mansion in Montreal's wealthiest neighborhood with her acolyte, Irina, who trolls the internet for appropriate victims. When Irina entices the bi-curious wife of a police detective into the deadly embrace of the Countess, the detective's search for his missing wife leads him into a losing game of cat and mouse with the clever and amoral vamp, Elizabeth. The Countess' nemesis, Detective Raymond Pope, is a secret masochist who indulges his perversions with his partner's wife, a woman who shares his taste for the kind of sex that their spouses don't understand. Pope is Bathory's equal only in the size of his ego, and in his disregard for the law. Where the Countess is all cultured intelligence and style, Pope is boorish and crass. Their counterbalanced attraction/repulsion is meant to fuel the erotic tension of the story, but as played by former kickboxer Conrad Pla, Detective Pope is simply too crude and vulgar to elicit any appeal on his side of the equation. He does however, give reason to cheer the female villain.

As played by Canadian actress Caroline Néron, the Countess is every bit as seductive to her movie audience as she is to her female victims. The supporting actresses are also quite beautiful, and the scenes of sexuality are intense though most will wish they were longer. Countess Bathory, though depicted in Eternal as an amoral and self-absorbed murderer, is not acted as being anywhere near the shocking sadist that she was in real life. Caroline Néron never makes us see real evil in her eyes, and her accomplice is given the task of executing the most shocking murders.

A merely adequate storyline, some poorly written bits of dialogue and some less than totally believable acting slightly mar this otherwise admirable and ambitious film. On-location scenes in Montreal and Italy, plus a fine orchestral filmscore add to the pleasures of this over-achieving film.

"Corpse Bride" Movie Review

It's been twelve years since the release of The Nightmare Before Christmas, Tim Burton's first, and heretofore only full-length, stop-motion feature. In those twelve years, Nightmare has become a beloved classic, so much so that the Disney Corporation has re-released the film annually at their flagship movie palace on Hollywood Boulevard and decorated Disneyland's Haunted Mansion with Skellingtoniana to commemorate Halloween. Hopes and expectations are high for Burton's long overdue followup, Corpse Bride, to be a film with equal charm and wit.

The good news is that although Corpse Bride is a less ambitious work than The Nightmare Before Christmas in every way except for the quality of the animation and art direction, it succeeds on its own terms to be amusing, touching and often chilling.

Victor and Victoria are the children of two equally loathesome sets of parents, the Van Dorts and the Everglots. As their first names imply, they're members of Victorian society, and also meant for each other from the day their parents named them.

Both bookish and shy, with overbearing families, they are brought together fortuitously by the machinations of an arranged marriage. They fall in love at first sight, but when the pressure of a disasterous wedding rehearsal under the baleful stare of Pastor Galswell overwhelms Victor, he seeks calm and comfort in the woods, where a bizarre twist of fate betroths him to Emily, the dead but still sexy Corpse Bride.

Victor's descent into the underworld, his discovery of Emily's tragic fate in her past life, and his struggle to reconcile his love for Victoria with his supernatural bond to the Corpse Bride comprises the heart of the story.

Like The Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride is also laced with musical productions, though fewer in number and somewhat less inspired. The best songs are Tears to Shed, which is hauntingly melancholy and reminiscent of Sally's lament in Nightmare, and Remains of the Day, a fun song with echoes of composer Danny Elfman's former band Oingo Boingo, complete with Dia De Los Muertos visual stylings.

Fans of Tim Burton and of Nightmare in particular will love and embrace Corpse Bride, despite the fact that Victor Van Dort is is a rather wan and mousy male lead compared to the wickedly flamboyant Jack Skellington. (Emily the Corpse Bride is definitely the dominant in their relationship.)

Johnny Depp's voice is nearly unrecognizable, but perfect as Victor, and Christopher Lee is ideal as the intimidating Pastor Galswell. Emily Watson, Helena Bonham Carter, Tracey Ullman, Albert Finney, Jane Horrocks, Danny Elfman and Deep Roy are included in the fine cast of voice actors. The movie is the first full length stop-motion animated feature to use digital cameras in place of 35mm film.

Like Jack, the Corpse Bride will undoubtedly be returning at this time of year for many Halloweens to come.

"Serenity"Movie Review

Every moviegoer who ever loved the playful spirit of adventure that filled the early Star Wars films should be certain to experience the pleasures to be found in Serenity, the first feature-length film based of the short-lived television series Firefly.

For the uninitiated who blinked and missed it's original run on Fox, Firefly is the story of a human society that colonizes a distant solar system centuries from now, only to endure an interplanetary civil war between the strictly controlled Universal Alliance and the laissez-faire rebels of the outer planets. When the war of independence is lost by the rebels, space captain Malcolm Reynolds attempts to live a free life as an outlaw under the Alliance's radar by hiring out his transport ship Serenity and by committing various acts of petty crime. The lives of Malcolm and his crew are complicated and often jeopardized when he takes aboard a mysteriously gifted and mentally unstable girl named River, who was a prized experiment in behavioral control before her escape from Alliance custody.

Actress Summer Glau as River Tam is the outstanding star of Serenity, dazzling with her gracefulness as she uses her balletic martial arts to eliminate dozens of enemies in several well choreographed fight scenes. Her face expresses all the haunted vulnerablity of a girl subjected to years of psychic torment, while projecting a deadly invincibility as Serenity's ultimate weapon.

Captain Reynolds is patterned after a lineage of storied rogues, of whom Han Solo is only one (and the most obvious). River Tam bears a noteable similarity to Milla Jovovich's kick-ass heroines, Leeloo from The Fifth Element and Alice from Resident Evil. As always however, creator Joss Whedon puts his unique spin on each character, giving them the depth of backstory and adding layers of torment that explain their dark sides. Both Mal and River are subject to Jeckyl and Hyde personality shifts based on their unique histories. In addition to the threat posed by the operatives of the Universal Alliance, the crew of Serenity is also potential prey for the Reavers, a pathologically violent and mutated race of humanity whose origin is discovered as River leads Serenity to reveal one of the Alliance's blackest sins.

Serenity is rated PG-13 for sequences of intense violence and action, and some sexual references.

"MirrorMask" Movie Review

MirrorMask is an imaginatively conceived and brilliantly produced story of a young girl's journey of self-discovery by way of a hallucinatory adventure through her dreams. And oh, what dreams do come. It's doubtful that the most ardent absinthe drinkers ever had dreams such as these. Helena is the daughter of travelling circus owners, a performing juggler by necessity, but passionate about her drawing, which adorns the walls of her room.

While other children her age dream of running away to join the circus, Helena dreams of running away from it. Although her parents are kind and understanding, Helena's desire to find her own way is the cause of friction. After a particularly angry fight in which the girl wishes her mother dead, Helena is heartbroken to discover that a short time later, her mother was indeed stricken by a potentially fatal malady which will require a dangerous operation to cure. Helena goes to sleep that night, overwhelmed by her guilt and conflicted emotions, and enters a uniquely beautiful, disturbing and sometimes precognitive dreamworld in which both she and her mother are personified as twin entities, one dark and one light.

A match made in heaven between partners Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean (Sandman) and the Jim Henson Company (Labyrinth) gives birth to a masterwork of surreal imagery. Author Neil Gaiman, renowned for his Sandman series of graphic novels, was enlisted for the creation of MirrorMask by the Jim Henson Company, seeking to create a fantasy film in the style of Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal. The result is a delightfully satisfying treasure trove of beautiful visions, like an Alice in Wonderland for the 21st century.

MirrorMask also bears some passing resemblance to Cirque Du Soleil's Quidam, and of course to The Wizard of Oz, in its tale of a bored young girl who becomes lost in a dreamlike world only to return with a new perspective on reality.

Actress Stephanie Leonidas is charming as Helena, and Gina McKee's patrician beauty is perfect for her dual roles as loving mother and icy Queen of Darkness. MirrorMask is a must see, and is sure to be a must-own on DVD.

"The Fog" (2005) Movie Review

There's no justice for hopeful horror fans in this dreadfully disappointing tale of the justice-seeking crew of a ghost ship.

Despite the involvement of John Carpenter, the creator of the 1980 original verson of The Fog, and despite the advances made in special effects during the past 25 years, this remake of a belovedly hokey (but scary) horror classic comes as a disappointment, and for three quarters of its length it's a crashing bore.

One hundred years after the birth of a west coast fishing town by murderous and thieving founding fathers, the victims of a sunken clipper ship return to impose justice on the descendents of those responsible for their deaths.

Those changes that have been made from the original do nothing to advance the story or to add interest. Apparently, updating a horror film in 2005 consists of replacing effectively scary special effects with slick but tiresome CGI, replacing proven and popular scream queens and true stars (Jamie Lee Curtis, Adrienne Barbeau, Janet Leigh, John Houseman, Hal Holbrook) with a few teen idol TV stars.

Even Selma Blair, an actress whose presence in films like Hellboy, Pretty Persuasion and Cruel Intentions is a pleasure to see, doesn't help to make this return of The Fog any easier to get through.

The last 20 minutes manages to liven interests with some vivid imagery and a new retelling of the fate of the clipper ship Elizabeth Dane, but by then, most viewers will be too anxiously awaiting the end credits and an escape to the exits to really care.

"Saw II" Movie Review

Saw II wastes no time in delivering on the promise of its tag line, "oh yes... there will be blood," or in living up to the expectations set by its predecessor. The film opens with a scene of horrific torment and suspense in which a new victim of the kidnapper 'Jigsaw' is forced to make a gut-wrenching decision in order to save his life. Again and again throughout the film, the tortured pawns in a game of sadistic justice are sacrificed in unspeakably cruel ways as a result of their mistakes, past and present. The makers of Saw II have improved upon the original by maintaining a consistent level of tension moment to moment, and by casting far more effective actors in the lead roles. Tobin Bell's portrayal of Jigsaw is perfect in its understated presentation of an evil genius, motivated by a compulsion to punish, chastise and either reform or execute those who are seen as unworthy of the lives they've been given. A double-twist ending brings this second chapter of the Saw franchise to a satisfying conclusion, in keeping with the precedent set by the first film, though it's perhaps not quite the jaw-dropping blindside that made Saw I an instant classic. Donnie Wahlberg stars as a secretly corrupt cop who routinely frames various criminals as his own way of insuring justice, now trapped in a game of Jigsaw's creation, racing against time in a cat and mouse game to save his estranged son from death by deadly Serin gas poisoning. Dina Meyer as Detective Kerry and Shawnee Smith as Jigsaw survivor Amanda return from Saw I. The beautiful Emmanuelle Vaugier as Addison joins a cast of potential victims who gruesomely fall prey to their own inability to display calm, logic or humanity in their effort to escape the hellish trap in which they awaken to find themselves.

"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" Movie Review

Fans of J.K. Rowlings' phenomenal series have come to love the entire cast of characters as portrayed so memorably on screen. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Hagrid, Severus Snape and the Malfoys, Draco and Lucius, are as familiar as family, and who could resist a chance to revisit them in their world in a new theatrical release?

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is as irresistible to Potter fans as the films that have preceeded it, but that's not to say that it's without its unfortunate flaws.

The passage of time is not being kind to the continuing saga, and not because of the rapidly maturing children at its center. The trio of endearing young actors Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint have remained a constant, and retain the same charm as ever.

With the passing years have come new directors, and Goblet is unfortunately the most problematically directed Potter yet. Choppy editing and questionable story revisions make the film confusing to those who have not read the book and simply puzzling or frustrating to those who have.

Given, The Goblet of Fire is a densely woven, 700+ pages long novel, but with his Lord of the Rings adaptation, Peter Jackson set a high standard for movie makers to follow that director Mike Newell doesn't attain. Even long-time screenwriter Steven Kloves lets down his source material in this outing by omitting major characters, shorting others and reweaving the plot in ways that makes one wonder how the narrative tapestry that follows will hold together and remain true to the story.

Also left behind in time's wake is Richard Harris as Dumbledore, sadly missed now more than ever, as actor Michael Gambon hits false notes from beginning to end in his portrayal of the once-fatherly Professor, now lacking in kindliness and charisma.

On the subject of false notes, viewers of The Goblet of Fire will decide for themselves whether an encounter between a naked Harry and the ghost of Moaning Myrtle is amusing, titillating, or uncomfortably perverse and inappropriate.

Among the many saving graces of Goblet are the always delightful presences of Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith and Jason Issacs as Professors Snape, McGonagall and Malfoy, and the addition of colorful new characters like Professor Alastor 'Mad­Eye' Moody and Madame Olympe Maxime, the Headmistress of an all-girl school of wizardry.

Equally inviting as the flesh and blood characters are the special effects, including one of the most realistic dragons ever seen on film. A scene in which the fire-breathing wyrm scrabbles across the tiled roofs of Hogwart's in pursuit of the nearly overmatched Harry is exquisitely conceived and rendered.

And finally, the Lord Voldemort is at last successful in regaining his horrific and powerful form to face off against Harry in a scene that is shocking, tense and thoroughly gothic.

Harry Potter fans can rejoice that another Holiday gift has arrived with many qualities to enjoy, but an extended 3 1/2 hour version on DVD for next Christmas would be equally welcome and deserved.

"Aeon Flux" Movie Review

Aeon Flux, a ruthlessly efficient killer, is the prime weapon in a rebel army's fight for liberation in a future society where nothing is as it seems. From her beginning as a character in a series of shorts on MTV's Liquid Television (an anthology of adult cartoons) through her role in her own regular series, Aeon Flux and her world were enigmatic and logic defying. Originally, her character was killed at the end of each episode, only to 'respawn' in subsequent chapters. She rarely spoke, and the nature of her love/hate relationship with her ultimate antagonist, Trevor Goodchild was shrouded in mystery. As opposites that attract and repel, Aeon was an amoral, anarchistic force of nature, while Goodchild was a dictator imposing mind control technology upon society to enforce his vision of utopia. The series' creator, Peter Chung, co-wrote this cinematic vision of Aeon Flux, and the story's shroud of mystery is finally lifted in a tale that retains many of the qualities of the animated series, while completely changing others, creating a far more conventional story line. Unexpected plot twists keep the story interesting, Chung's surreal inventiveness adds an entertaining "whoa" factor, and Charlize Theron as Aeon provides the expected eye-candy throughout. Theron's casting as Aeon represents something of a reimagining of the character, who was originally a hard-edged, steely eyed death dealer. With a lithe physique and a model's beauty, she looks fetching in the character's body suits and revealing costumes, but her face is so naturally expressive of emotion that the image of an amoral assassin is never truly realized. As the story unfolds, this paradox of actions and appearances becomes an asset that works to fine effect. Readers who have seen the trailer for Aeon Flux should be relieved to learn that the film is much different (and much better) than the preview suggests. It is however, as close in style and substance to the cheezy 1970's cult fave Logan's Run as it is to the sublime perfection of The Matrix. Aeon Flux is not the ultimate vision of a dystopian future, but in its willingness to blend pure imagination and a story with substance, and in offering an unapologetic vision of dangerous beauty, it's something to see.

"Casanova" Movie Review

In the words of the Catholic Inquisition, the crimes of Giacomo Casanova include "debauchery, heresy and fornication with a nun." Of course in the mind of Casanova himself, he's not a criminal heretic and fornicator, he's merely a philosopher who adores the beauty of women, and who finds great pleasure in expressing his worship in carnal ways, with an unmatched skill, as often as possible. That is, until he finds the woman who can express her own philosophy of love more inarguably than he, and who possesses unmatched skills of her own. So begins a delightfully funny, sexy, exciting and romantic tale in director Lasse Hallström's retelling of the storied life of the legendary lover. Hallström has directed many excellent films that always take a very heartfelt and sentimental view of human nature, as demonstrated in the highly praised Chocolat, What's Eating Gilbert Grape and The Cider House Rules. Casanova is the Swedish director's most playful film yet, full of irreverent humor, rich with excellent performances that are each perfect in their own way. Heath Ledger captures his Casanova's wit, cockiness, charm and his foolhardy compulsion to flirt with disaster in the name of love. The women in Casanova's life are each completely seductive in their own way, with Sienna Miller as the feminist Francesca Bruni who steals the seducer's heart, and Natalie Dormer as a notorious but secretly hot-blooded virgin, who saves herself for true lust, rather than true love. The story's structure as a recalled memory of old age allows for a humorously juggled mix of the improbable and the impossible, with characters frequently allowed to play over the top, particularly in the case of Jeremy Irons as the Vatican's watchdog Inquisitor Pucci.
Casanova combines many of the best features of the swashbuckling romantic costume adventures that have come before, and takes it's place with the likes of Dangerous Beauty, Don Juan De Marco, Shakespeare in Love and Tom Jones. Beautifully filmed locations in Venice and extravagant costumes by the best costumers in Italy add to the visual delights of this wonderfully realized fable.

"BloodRayne" Movie Review

Kristanna Loken, best known as the female T-X terminator in Terminator 3, provides the most convincing reason to see BloodRayne, the story of a half-vampire, half-human 'dhampir' on a vengeful quest. Sir Ben Kingsley appears as Bloodrayne's nemesis, the vampire Kagan, and Michael Madsen stars as the leader of a society of vampire hunters. Billy Zane and Michelle Rodriguez also co-star. It's unfortunate that the infamous director Uwe Boll persuaded Kingsley, Madsen and Zane to show up for filming but was either unable, unwilling or uncaring when it came to inspiring these actors with passion. None has a clue as to what is required to make their roles effective. In the absence of a competent director, Kingsley is ineffective, Madsen is inappropriate and Zane is incomprehensible. Nowhere does Kingsley display the qualities that would make his character Kagan fearsome or powerful. He's an imitation Bela Lugosi in an era in which Gary Oldman set the standard for old-school vampires with his chilling portrayal of Dracula. Ironically, one of the most effective scenes in BloodRayne is a sexually charged tryst between Rayne and one of her vampire hunting allies that comes out of nowhere like a sucker punch. It's a hot scene, almost pornographic, and it's indicative of the energy with which Kristanna Loken attacks her role. Given the lethargy of the rest of her cast, her commitment seems misplaced and feels out of synch. Comparing BloodRayne with the new Underworld: Evolution is to realize what might have been, given the similarity of story lines. Both are lurid, unapologetic odes to vampiric violence and vengeance, each with a nod to somewhat gratuitous sex by their beautiful female stars. When it comes to delivering a truly effective scene, the makers of Underworld go for the throat, while most of the particulars of BloodRayne go through the motions. Awkward editing and camera work undercut the production values of BloodRayne, and its poor script undercuts the potential within the story. Playstation and XBox gamers may be familiar with the dhampir character of Rayne, the character upon which this film is based. Fans of the game will have to readjust their expectations, as the time frame, the costumes, the weaponry and the very personality of Rayne have been reinvented to fit a medieval setting.