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For romantic comedy director Ernst Lubitsch the term “the Lubitsch Touch” was created. I’ve seen his films THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER and NINOTCHKA, which I found marvelous. NINOTCHKA is one of the best romantic comedies ever made. Based on a stage play, HEAVEN CAN WAIT does not disappoint either.

“The Lubitsch Touch” is kind of abstract, but for me it’s a sly and skilled subversion that adds a naughty tone underneath the airy romance on the surface. The film begins with an old Henry Van Cleve (Don Ameche, COCOON) in Hell, talking with His Excellency (Laird Cregar, THE BLAKC SWAN) about why he thinks he should spend the rest of time in damnation. He starts from his birth and works his way to his death.

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This might be one of the only pro-prostitution films ever made. It’s also very, very smart and well crafted. Based on the writings of real life courtesan Veronica Franco, the film takes place in 16th century Venice where woman were kept ignorant and bargained off by their fathers as part of business deals.

Poor Veronica (Catherine McCormack, SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE) is in love with rich boy Marco Venier (Rufus Sewell, DARK CITY), but he knows they can’t be married. Veronica’s mother Paola (Jacqueline Bisset, MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS) then teaches her the ways of the courtesan like she and her mother did. A courtesan in those times was allowed to be educated and moved in circles where rich men’s wives did not go. In contrast to Veronica’s life of freedom, her friend Beatrice (Moira Kelly, CUTTING EDGE) is married off to a wealthy, but ancient man. Marco is forced to marry prudish Guila De Lezze (Naomi Watts, MULHOLLAND DR.), which emboldens Veronica to embrace her lot in life and make the best of it.

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There are moments of honesty in this film and then there are moments that come from another planet. The intergalactic action overrides anything of worth in this film.

The movie has that teen movie formula where the graduating class all meet for one last party. The film is filled to the brim with characters, which adds a nice full feel to the class, but gives too much screen time to too many pointless episodes. The central story follows Preston Meyers (Ethan Embry, EMPIRE RECORDS), who has longed for the beautiful Amanda Beckett (Jennifer Love Hewitt, THE TUXEDO) since the moment he first met her. Well, they really didn’t meet, because she has no clue who he is. Her jocky and cocky boyfriend Mike Dexter (Peter Facinelli, THE BIG KAHUNA) has just broken up with her and Preston wants to give her a letter that tells her what he really thinks about her.

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There is a good reason why the Pentagon uses this film in counter terrorism training. In a documentary style, the film shows how and why insurgences begin, sustain themselves and often win the heart of their people.

Ali La Pointe (Brahim Haggiag, only film performance) is the face of the terrorists in the film and Col. Mathieu (Jean Martin, THE GREAT CHASE) is the face of the French imperialists. The film brilliantly looks at modern irregular warfare where any citizen could attack a police officer or military soldier or in the case of terrorists attacks innocent civilians. Because it’s set in Algeria and the terrorists are Arabs, the links to today are clear.

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Director Paul Verhoeven is best known for making films that either have excessive violence or excessive sex. I really like his ROBOCOP and TOTAL RECALL. BASIC INSTINCT is a guilty pleasure and has certainly developed some iconic moments. However, he’s also made extreme stinkers like HOLLOW MAN and SHOWGIRLS. But none of these films could have prepared me for TURKISH DELIGHT, which is hands down without a doubt his masterpiece. It’s brilliant.

The film begins with Eric Vonk (Rutger Hauer, BLADE RUNNER) violently murdering a man and woman in two separate scenes. Then we cut to him half naked in his filthy apartment. The murders were fantasies. Next we move into a montage of Eric’s sexual flings and learn that his true love Olga Stapels (Monique van de Ven, 1983’s BURNING LOVE) has just broken up with him. This is when we jump back in time two years and witness the whirlwind courtship of the immature and rebellious Eric and the childish and impetuous Olga.

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The “based on a true story” tag has never seemed so silly when in regard to this film. Yeah, there might be a powder that makes people seem dead and an anthropologist that went looking for it, but the rest of this film feels like pure fantasy.

Yet the film is indeed based on anthropologist Wade Davis’ book about his studies on zombism, which have now been widely discredited. However, I went into the movie not looking for realism, but a pre-NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD classic zombie tale like I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE. What I did get is a weak horror flick that disguises itself as a drama.

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Based on Douglas Sirk’s ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS, director Rainer Werner Fassbinder brought the story of an older woman falling for a younger man into the 1970s. If the age difference wasn’t a problem enough, cleaning lady Emmi Kurowski (Brigitte Mira, BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ) is a white German and her lover, Ali (El Hedi ben Salem, THE MERCHANT OF FOUR SEASONS), is a black Moroccan.

They meet one night when Emmi comes into a bar to get out of the rain. The film’s themes of isolation are established early on with Emmi sitting what seems like miles away from the other staring patrons. The wonderful cinematography with its bold colors and metaphoric framing and staging is a subtle commenter throughout the film. Someone dares Ali to ask Emmi to dance, which he does. Because of the rain, he asks to walk her home. The two lonely souls talk and he ends up spending the night with her.

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Some parts of this film really don’t work, but the parts that do work, work really well. Ed (Jay Mohr, JERRY MAGUIRE) and Alice (Julianne Nicholson, TULLY) are about to get married. Like all couples making this jump they have doubts. Alice wonders if their marriage will work because she hasn’t had a lot of sex with different people and wonders if she will be missing out on something. So she purposes that they fool around with other people until they get married so that they won’t doubt anything once they do get hitched.

Ed isn’t sure about the plan, but soon gets into it more than Alice. Alice’s shallow sister Claire (Lauren Graham, BAD SANTA) and Ed’s callow friend Lou (Josh Charles, DEAD POETS SOCIETY) think the arraignment is brilliant. But Ed’s easy going friend Carl (Andy Richter, NEW YORK MINUTE) thinks it’s awful as does Claire’s smarmy husband Peter (Bryan Cranston, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN), but for reasons his wife might not expect.

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This movie from Brigham Young University graduate Mitch Davis is so one-sided that it reeks of propaganda. Based on the true story of Mormon John Groberg (Christopher Gorham, A LIFE LESS ORDINARY) and his mission in Tonga, the film never captures one ounce of believability. The message and purpose may not have been to preach, but it comes off that way.

The portrayals of the islanders are either as devoted robots to the church or slightly more civilized than a bunch of backwards savages that good ol’ white bread is there to save — in more ways than one. The film makes it out like the guy converted the whole freakin’ country. It never shows the side of the people he couldn’t reach.

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Albert Brooks’ satirical take on hippies becoming yuppies in the 1980s is funny and smart. Brooks (DEFENDING YOUR LIFE) plays 30-something, ad agency creative director David Howard, who is anticipating a big promotion. His wife Linda (Julie Hagerty, AIRPLANE!) is bored with their life, which never seems to change.

Well, things don’t quite work out for the couple the way they planned, so they end up buying a Winnebago and “dropping out of society” like Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda did in EASY RIDER. Their attempts to throw caution to the wind and shed their responsible lifestyles are very funny, because they never quite work and they often have to resort to their old ways to survive.

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