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I’ve seen bits and pieces of this film over the years, but never all the way through until now. I was surprised at how subtle some of the satire is and how dead on it is with some of its comments about family vacations. The ending has a nice sardonic touch, which satirizes American family values as well as the Walt Disney empire.

The plot is simple — Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase, FLETCH) wants to drive his family from Chicago to Los Angeles to visit the Wally World theme park. Along the way they encounter everything that could go wrong. Chase is perfect in the role of the overachieving father, with a dialed down performance that is absent from the other VACATION flicks even the solid CHRISTMAS VACATION installment. His wife Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo, AMERICAN HISTORY X) loves Clark’s enthusiasm and encourages him… up to a point. “Rusty” Griswold (Anthony Michael Hall, PRETTY IN PINK) is a typical horny teen and Audrey Griswold (Dana Barron, THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK) is your typical boy-obsessed, rebellious teen. Rusty is just young enough to still dig his father’s vacation plans and Audrey is just old enough to loathe the entire idea.

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The first time I saw this film I thought it was only a three-star flick, but like many great movies they don’t really hit you until a second or third viewing. There was a lot of hype about this film in critic circles in 2001 and I think I went into it expecting something different. If you have ever seen a Terrence Malick (DAYS OF HEAVEN, BADLANDS, THIN RED LINE) film then you know the style of this picture. The cinematography is warm and rustic, filmed when the sun is just about to set.

The story is slowly paced with no real plot. The film centers on a group of poor kids living in North Carolina. Taking place during one summer, they learn a lot about life, themselves and what they want from their future. George (Donald Holden) is the main character, who’s a teenage boy with a skull affliction that prevents him from submerging his head in water. He often wears a helmet to protect his soft skull. He lives with his aunt and uncle, which we find out the reason in a moving scene with George’s father later in the film. He’s scared of his uncle Damascus (Eddie Rouse, JUWANNA MANN) because the man is cold, distant and mean to dogs. However, like all the characters in the film, he has a reason for being the way he is and we learn about his past in a touching scene between him and George.

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The film follows a tribe of Eskimos through hunger, marriage, betrayal, murder and revenge. It’s the first fiction film done in the Inuktitut language, starring a completely Inuktitut cast and filmed by a crew comprised of 95% Inuktitut people.

The film starts out with Atanarjuat (Natar Ungalaaq) and his older brother, Amaqjuaq (Pakak Innuksuk), as children and how their family gets ridiculed because their father is not a good hunter. When Atanarjuat and Amaqjuaq grow up they become great hunters to the envy of another young man, Oki (Peter-Henry Arnatsiaq).

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This film has long been considered the best anime film of all-time. That’s not really saying too much about anime. For those out of the loop, anime is pretty much the all-encompassing term for Japanese animation, mostly intended for adults, which this film would fall under.

The plot follows Kaneda, a young member of a biker gang, as he tries to survive in Neo-Tokyo (Tokyo was destroyed in 1988). Essentially, the plot centers on a government project to elicit the complete potential of humans by experimenting with telekinetic children. Tetsuo, a member of Kaneda’s biker gang, is very enraged by his constantly bullied status in and out of the gang. After he comes in contact with one of the telekinetics, he gains untapped power, which soon reaches a point he cannot control.

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Some films seep into the popular vernacular. We quote them without really knowing what we’re quoting. I don’t know how many times I’ve said, “He sure got a purr-dy mouth,” but I didn’t know where it was from, until now.

The film is simpler than I thought it would be, but that doesn’t diminish its power. This psychological thriller had me on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to pop out of the woods next. Four city boys head out onto a river in the Appalachian Mountains that will soon be transformed into a lake once a new dam is completed. Their trip starts out fun, but quickly turns into terror when they get brutally attack by sadistic rednecks. The film equally deals with the ideas of man vs. nature and city folk vs. county folk.

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This film is the quintessential courtroom drama. Well, I guess jury room drama is more accurate. Besides a brief prologue and epilogue the entire film takes place in a jury room on the hottest day of the year. An 18-year-old “ethnic” boy is on trial for murdering his father. A preliminary vote shows that all but one juror would vote guilty right away, which would lead the boy to death row.

In a classic performance, Henry Fonda (GRAPES OF WRATH) plays Juror #8, the man who wants to talk about the case before he sends a boy to the electric chair. He’s not convinced whether the defendant is guilty or not. As the 12 men discuss the facts of the case we see how “truth” is often shaded by pride, prejudice and cultural status. Juror #3 (Lee J. Cobb, THE EXORCIST) is the most bitter and seems to be putting his own personal problems onto the defendant. Juror #10 (Ed Begley, HANG ‘EM HIGH) keeps talking about “those people” and at one point in the film goes on a racist rant, which even people who still think the boy is guilty get up from the table and turn their backs to him. Juror #4 (E.G. Marshall, NIXON) tries to look at the facts with pure logic and no emotion. Juror #7 (Jack Warden, THE VERDICT) seems more interested in getting to his ball game then really giving any real thought to which way he will vote.

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