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Lots of films have been made about the Holocaust, however none has transported me into the experience more than this film. Director Roman Polanski (CHINATOWN, ROSEMARY’S BABY) has assembled scenes of the tragedy similar to the horrors that we have seen before, but he presents them from the eyes of a man just trying to survive.

The story follows the true-life story of famed Polish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody, SUMMER OF SAM). In college, I read the book, NIGHT, by renowned Holocaust survivor and scholar Elie Wiesel, which depicted how the Nazi’s inhumane treatment of the Jews made some of the Jews inhumane themselves. To me that is the saddest thing about the atrocities. To beat a human down so much that they almost cease to be a human. This film shows some of that, which brings a unique emotional power to the film that other Holocaust films have not. Szpilman isn’t presented as a hero, but a survivor and a witness. He did what he had to do to live, but was able to retain his identity throughout.

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I saw this story done on the stage first, so I knew the story going in. However, the performances across the board are wonderful and brought life to a story often told on both stage and screen — most recently as YOU’VE GOT MAIL.

This version stars James Stewart (THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH) as Alfred Kralik and Margaret Sullavan (THE SHINING HOUR) as Klara Novak, two people who strike up a pen-pal romance, but come to hate each other when they unknowingly meet as employees of the department store Matuschek and Co. The two plan to meet, but when Kralik sees that his secret love is Miss Novak, he’s unsure what to do. When she sees him she jabs him with a few insults and he leaves not telling her that he’s her mystery man. From this point forward, Kralik works to mend his reputation in the eyes of Miss Novak.
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The film is being billed as a comedy, but it’s not a laugh-a-minute fest. If this is a comedy it might be the saddest, most depressing comedy of all-time.

The film follows the life of Warren Schmidt (Jack Nicholson, AS GOOD AS IT GETS) right after he retires from his assistant VP post at an Omaha insurance firm. He’s a 66-year-old man, who doesn’t look forward to his retirement and the feeling that he is not needed or not important anymore. He is a cheap man, who plans to travel in a Winnebago with his wife, Helen (June Squibb, MEET JOE BLACK). However, when she suddenly dies, Warren is thrust into a future that he didn’t expect.
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A lot was made of the fact that Tom Hanks (BIG) has playing a mean-as-nails assassin. Well, in reality he’s the softest mean-as-nails assassin I’ve ever seen. Maybe because it’s Hanks you just can’t buy him as cold-blooded, but I’ve seen a lot more intimidating killers than Michael Sullivan. I’m not saying that Hanks was bad, I just don’t think that he comes off as mean as the film wanted him to be.

The story is a simple revenge flick, which has Sullivan gunning for the killer of his family, who happens to be the son of the top gangster, John Rooney (Paul Newman, THE STING). Rooney is like an adopted father to Sullivan. Rooney even loves Sullivan more than his own son Connor (Daniel Craig, LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER). This situation creates bad blood and, following Sullivan’s oldest son Michael Jr. (Tyler Hoechlin, TRAIN QUEST) witnessing a murder, leads to the slaughter of Sullivan’s family.

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This is the second time that I’ve seen this Best Picture winner from 1986 and I liked it better this time. But I still can name war pictures that came prior and after this one that say more about the insanity and pointlessness of war. From that negative note, I will say that this film contains wonderful performances from an impressive cast and the cinematography creates an equally claustrophobic and chaotic feeling that heightens the overall mood of the film.

Charlie Sheen gives his best performance as Chris Taylor, a confused college student from a well-off family that enlists in the infantry to see what life is really like. He quickly discovers that war isn’t life — it’s hell. Up until this time, Tom Berenger (BIG CHILL) played good guys and Willem Dafoe (STREETS OF FIRE) played bad guys, but director Oliver Stone (BORN ON THE 4TH OF JULY) casted them against type as Sgt. Barnes and Sgt. Elias respectively. Barnes understands the brutality of combat and doesn’t try to bring conventional morality into madness, because he sees that as madness. Elias is a crusader who tries to retain his humanity by acknowledging the humanity of all people. The two characters are the yin and yang of the platoon and Chris flip flops from one viewpoint to the other depending on the crisis in front of him.

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This is one of my favorite films from the last few years. Something new impresses me about it every time I see it. Romantic comedies are rarely this good. But than romantic comedy characters are rarely written by Nick Hornby.

This unconventional rom-com follows Rob Gordon (John Cusack, SAY ANYTHING…) as he struggles to discover why his girlfriend, Laura (Iben Hjejle, in her American film debut), has broken up with him. He makes humorous asides to the camera that comment on his mental state and what he’s learning about himself in the process. He’s a disgruntled record storeowner, who sits around all day debating music with his two employees, Barry (Jack Black, ORANGE COUNTY) and Dick (Todd Louiso, JERRY MAGUIRE). He’d love to be a record producer, but doesn’t have the confidence to take the risk.
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