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Post MISERY stardom Kathy Bates takes on the lead in this Kleenex box flick. Bates has the flasher role, but the real central character is narrator and Bates’ oldest child Shayne Lacey (Edward Furlong, TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY). After their father dies, the Lacey tribe loses everything. So Frances Lacey (Bates) packs up her family and moves to Idaho.

She finds a plot of land and half finished house from Mr. Munimura (Soon-Tek Oh, MULAN), who becomes a benefactor to the family despite the complaints of Frances, who is a hard-headed woman who refuses to take hand outs. Frances sets her mind to building a house for the family by themselves. The general plot isn’t all that different from any single mother fighting for her family tale, but it’s the film’s perspective that makes it interesting.

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This film is John Carpenter’s attempt at an ALIEN-like horror flick. The film isn’t as good as the first two ALIEN flicks, but it succeeds in its own right. Like the ALIEN films it takes its time developing the story, but it doesn’t develop its cast as fully. ALIEN gets more into the social hierarchy of the ship where THE THING presents more character types. However, I was still captivated by the mood of THE THING.

The isolation of the South Pole locations really adds to the oppressive tone. The story follows an American outpost on Antarctica, which investigates a Norwegian outpost after two Norwegians fly a helicopter into their camp and shoot wildly at a dog. Pilot R.J. MacReady (Kurt Russell, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK) flies Dr. Copper (Richard A. Dysart, L.A. LAW) to the Norwegians’ base where they discover that a deformed human-like being has been discovered in the ice. The Americans quickly discover that the alien being can duplicate other beings. Before too long, a subtle paranoia sets into the camp, led by Dr. Blair (Wilford Brimley, COCOON). The other characters include cook Nauls (T.K. Carter, BAADASSSSS!), stoner pilot Palmer (David Clennon, SILVER CITY) and flame-throwing badass Childs (Keith David, PLATOON).

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This is a film about an old man and his cat. It’s also a bittersweet ode to aging. Harry Coombes (Art Carney, TV’s THE HONEYMOONERS) has been living in the same apartment in New York City for decades. The world is changing around him. He’s not bitter about it – he just soldiers through.

His best friends are Jacob Rivetowski (Hebert Berghof, 1963’s CLEOPATRA) and his pet cat Tonto. When his apartment building is set to be torn down, he is forced to move in with his son Burt (Philip Bruns, FLASHDANCE) and his family, which consists of Burt’s crabby wife Elaine (Dolly Jonah, only film performance), know-it-all hippie son Burt Jr. (Cliff De Young, GLORY) and son Norman (Josh Mostel, WALL STREET), who has taken a vow of silence as his new “thing.” This spurs Harry and Tonto’s wandering ways. They head off to Chicago to see Harry’s daughter Shirley (Ellen Burstyn, THE EXORCIST), who floats from one troubled marriage to the next. They eventually make it to California to see Harry’s down-on-his-luck playboy son, Eddie (Larry Hagman, TV’s DALLAS).
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Roman Polanski’s FRANTIC is a no frills thriller that excites by setting up its premise and letting the characters follow it to its logical conclusion. Nothing makes a better thriller than when the characters initiate the action rather than having the action thrust upon them.

Dr. Richard Walker (Harrison Ford, WITNESS), a world-renown doctor, is in Paris with his wife Sondra (Betty Buckley, ANOTHER WOMAN) for a conference. Sondra picks up the wrong suitcase from the airport and then once in their hotel disappears. Dr. Walker then frantically questions people to find out the details of what happened to his wife. Dr. Walker starts with the logical places, and when he starts to believe that his wife has been kidnapped, he does everything in his power to find the people who did it. Along his journey, Dr. Walker teams up with low-level hustler Michelle (Emmanuelle Seigner, THE NINTH GATE), who was involved with the switching of her suitcase for Mrs. Walker’s.

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Many directors make a “Hitchcock” film and this film is just one of Brian De Palma’s “Hitchcock” films. Borrowing a lot from PSYCHO and a bit from REAR WINDOW, De Palma crafts a murder mystery that keeps the viewer on edge and wanting to know what happens.

Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson, 1960’s OCEAN’S ELEVEN) is sexually frustrated widower who has remarried a lug. Her son Peter (Keith Gordon, LEGEND OF BILLY JEAN) is a scientific genius. She visits her psychiatrist Dr. Robert Elliott (Michael Caine, SLEUTH) to talk out her problems. One day at the museum, in a very detailed sequence of images, Kate flirts with a stranger later identified as Warren Lockman (Ken Baker, SAFARI 3000). This incident will spin the film into unexpected twists and turns that are part of the joy of the film. Other chief characters include sleazy looking police officer Det. Marino (Dennis Franz, TV’s NYPD BLUE) and Liz Blake (Nancy Allen, ROBOCOP), a high-class prostitute who ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

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This film was a big critical hit in its day and many consider it a classic. It follows the love triangle between 40-something homosexual doctor Dr. Daniel Hirsh (Peter Finch, NETWORK), 30-something heterosexual divorcee Alex Greville (Glenda Jackson, MARAT/SADE) and 20-something bi-sexual artist Bob Elkin (Murray Head, GAWAIN AND THE GREEN NIGHT).

There are no secrets between the three lovers; Daniel and Alex even share some of the same friends. With the sexual revolution of 1960s still making waves in American, this British film was praised for its civility in dealing with modern love. Bob is very at ease with the arrangement and even plans to leave England to go to America and pursue the business potential of his artwork. Alex seems to have the most difficult time dealing with the relationship with Bob, stemming from her abandonment issues with her husband and father. Daniel seems more sadly at ease with the arrangement because as a gay professional love seems to be a thing of fantasy.

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You can definitely say that you’ve never seen anything like this before. The film follows bottom-rung hustlers Willie (John Lurie, THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST) and Eddie (Richard Edson, DO THE RIGHT THING). Willie moved to New York City from Hungary and hasn’t done a single thing with his life. A good day for him is sleeping in.

Then unexpectedly he has to take in his cousin Eva (Eszter Balint, TREES LOUNGE) who is flying in from Budapest. He doesn’t want her there and she knows it. They begrudgingly get along until she moves to Cleveland to live with their aunt Lotte (Cecillia Stark, only film performance), who only speaks Hungarian with a few dashes of English. A year passes and after some trouble with a poker game, Willie suggests to Eddie that they drive to Cleveland to visit Eva, who is happy to see them because it’s a change. But the new location doesn’t change, Willie and Eddie. They continue their boring and redundant existence. This is when they decide that going to Florida will really be a change, but it isn’t.

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As a director Ivan Reitman is best known for making the two GHOST BUSTERS films. DAVE follows Dave Kovic (Kevin Kline, A FISH CALLED WANDA), an owner of an employment agency who acts as a presidential impersonator on the side. He gets called to be the body double for the real president Bill Mitchell (Kline), who engages in a tryst with an intern named Randi (Laura Linney, YOU CAN COUNT ON ME).

After the president has a stroke, his chief of staff Bob Alexander (Frank Langella, LOLITA) and communications director Alan Reed (Kevin Dunn, STIR OF ECHOES) plot to have Dave pose as the president until they can find a way to out the current vice president Gary Nance (Ben Kingsley, GANDHI) and replace him with Alexander. So Dave has to learn to fake out everyone in the country, especially the First Lady Ellen Mitchell (Sigourney Weaver, ALIEN), who happens to loathe her husband. The cast also features Ving Rhames (PULP FICTION) as a secret service agent, Charles Grodin (BEETHOVEN) as Dave’s CPA friend Murray and Bonnie Hunt in a cameo performance as a White House tour guide.

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Some people view this film as a true classic. It made the AFI list for the 100 greatest American movie romances. Some people view the film as a sudsy melodrama.

Wilma Dean Loomis (Natalie Wood, REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE) and Bud Stamper (Warren Beatty, REDS) are high school students, who are madly in love. The film is set in 1929, but it could take place today. Wilma Dean feels the pressures of being a “good girl” from her mother (Audrey Christie, THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN) and Bud feels equal pressure from his father Ace (Pat Hingle, HANG ‘EM HIGH) to go to Yale and become a big success. The will of the two younger lovebirds’ parents is forced upon them and drives them apart.

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We return to the final chapter in Musashi Miyamoto’s (Toshiro Mifune) journey to becoming a samurai. Accompanying him is his student Jotaro (Kenjin Iida). Musashi is more at peace, but guilty about his last encounter with his love Otsu (Kaoru Yachigusa), who is still devotedly following him.

Kojiro Sasaki (Koji Tsuruta) is even more determined to prove himself as the best samurai. Akemi (Mariko Okada) is still in love with Musashi and very jealous of Otsu. This final installment in this epic series is about Musashi finding peace with his past and balancing his love with his anger.

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