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A great deal of press preceded the release of Ang Lee latest film last year, because it was being released in theaters with an NC-17 rating. Few theaters carry NC-17 films, because few newspapers will run ads for NC-17 films, so few movie companies make NC-17 films. While cinemas all across America every week contain at least one orgy of blood marketed to teens, what horrors does Lee have in store for us? Gasp, sex. And it could be real sex to boot. Lee answers the question whether his actors had sex by simply stating, “You saw the film.” So why start the review discussing the ridiculous rating system in America — because ratings should be meaningless to reviewing this film and should be disposed with before discussing the merits of Lee’s work.

Set during WWII when Shanghai was occupied by the Japanese, a group of college students come together to form a theater group to perform protest plays. The quiet young girl Wong Chia Chi (Wei Tang, film debut) takes to acting quickly. This piques the affections of group leader Kuang Yu Min (Lee-Hom Wang). Soon protests plays are not enough for Kuang, who decides the group to work their way into the inner circle of Mr. Yee (Tony Leung, HERO), a high ranking official in the collaborationist government, and assassinate him. Chia Chi, posing as Mrs. Mak, the rich wife of an absent businessman, catches the eye of Mr. Yee. Using the official’s wife (Joan Chen, THE LAST EMPEROR) as her in road, Chia Chi prepares for her mission as best as she can, even giving up her virginity to a fellow rebel so she can be convincing with Yee. But the rash plans of the naïve students do not go smoothly, leaving many to reevaluate their motives.

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THE CONVERSATION is a film that I have seen twice. I wasn’t all that impressed with it the first time I saw it, but considering its reputation I decided to give it a second viewing. For whatever reason sometimes certain films don’t hit you the first time, but then startle you the second time around. This is the same experience I had with DR. STRANGELOVE (now one of my favorite films) and David Gordon Green’s GEORGE WASHINGTON. I believe the pacing of Francis Ford Coppola’s thriller is part of why this happened. I think upon my first viewing, I was beguiled by the slow build and missed the point of the ending. Upon seeing it again, I was beguiled by the unique anti-hero unlike any seen elsewhere on screen and an ending that blew me away with its depth and style.

Harry Caul (Gene Hackman, HOOSIERS) is the preeminent surveillance man in the U.S. He’s a guilt-ridden, paranoid Catholic, who is severely guarded about his personal life. Along with his partner Stan (John Cazale, GODFATHER), he’s working a new case where he has to record the conservation of Ann (Cindy Williams, TV’s LAVERNE & SHIRLEY) and Mark (Frederic Forrest, POINT BLANK), who are meeting in a noisy park during lunch hour. Caul obsesses about one garbled comment by Mark, and when he uncovers it, floods of bad memories rush back to him. He starts to question the motives of his clients the director of a major company (Robert Duvall, APOCALYPSE NOW) and the exec’s assistant Martin Stett (Harrison Ford, STAR WARS). In a dream, we see Caul tell Ann that he isn’t scared of death, only murder.

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Robert DeNiro’s tale about the birth of the CIA reminded me a great deal of THE GODFATHER. From its epic scope to its family drama to the central character’s obligations, it’s not surprising that Francis Ford Coppola was an executive producer on the film.

Edward Wilson (Matt Damon, GOOD WILL HUNTING) was born into a wealthy, well-respected family, which affords him little choice to pick the direction of his life. He will follow in the footsteps of his father, Thomas (Timothy Hutton, KINSEY), and go to Yale where he will become a member of elite Skull & Bones Society. At the early stages of World War II, General Bill Sullivan (DeNiro) calls on Edward to help serve his country and operate as a spy for a newly formed foreign intelligence agency of the U.S. government. What other choice does he have then to say yes? Despite being in love with a sweet deaf girl named Laura (Tammy Blanchard, STEALING HARVARD), Edward is obligated to marry rich Margaret “Clover” Russell (Angelina Jolie, TOMB RAIDER) after he gets her pregnant. Edward’s quiet demeanor and cold detachment make him a perfect spy, but will all the lying he does, especially to himself, cost him his soul?

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Bond is back in one of my favorite Bond adventures to date. I’m a fairly new 007 fan and have not seen all of them yet. I typically enjoy the more realistic installments like FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE and FOR YOUR EYES ONLY. So this Bond reboot back to its espionage roots is greatly welcomed.

The film begins with a black and white segment showing us how James Bond (Daniel Craig, LAYER CAKE) reached 00 status. After some stylishly animated opening credits, we meet up with Bond in the midst of him tracking a bomber, which ends in a reckless Bond embarrassing the British government. His boss M (Judi Dench, SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE) wants him to back off, but he goes out hot in pursuit of the bad guys, which leads him to terrorist financier Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen, KING ARTHUR).

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John Sturges’ tight thriller still feels as topical today as it did back in 1965. A secret government lab has developed two new biological weapons — one of them has the potential to kill all living things on Earth.

In a taut opening sequence, thieves smuggle themselves into the facility and steal the germ weapons. The government calls on maverick former agent Lee Barrett (George Maharis, EXODUS) to help find out how the lab was compromised and who was involved. An inside job is suspected — instantly casting suspicion on surviving lab workers Dr. Gregor Hoffman (Richard Basehart, BEING THERE) and Dr. Yang (James Hong, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA). Barrett teams with agent and former flame Ann Williams (Anne Francis, FUNNY GIRL) and her father Gen. Williams (Dana Andrews, LAURA), staying hot on the trail of the thieves Veretti (Ed Asner, TV’s MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW) and Donald (TV’s GOMER PYLE).

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Sasuke Sarutobi (Koji Takahashi, SANSHIRO SUGATA) is a legendary samurai of the Sanada clan who is tracking Toyotomi clan spy Takanosuke Nojiri (Kei Sato, THE SWORD OF DOOM). One day he meets the spy Mitsuaki Inamura (Rokko Toura, ZATOICHI AND THE CHESS EXPERT), who is trying to sell information to Nojiri and his master Shigeyuki Koremura (Eitaro Ozawa, SAMURAI 1: MUSASHI MIYAMOTO), which lead them to the whereabouts of leading Tokugawa spy Tatewaki Koriyama (Eiji Okada, LADY SNOWBLOOD).

Sasuke wants nothing to do with Mitsuaki’s plan because he fears that it will lead to another war, especially after he finds out that Mitsuaki has ratted out a Christian samurai named Yashiro Kobayashi (Yasunori Irikawa) in an effort to sneak by the cruel local magistrate Genba Kuni (Minoru Hodaka, MISHIMA: A LIFE IN FOUR CHAPTERS). While on his mission, Sasuke runs into Tokugawa assassin Sakon Takatani (Tetsuro Tamba, THE STORY OF RICKY), who wants to find Tatewaki for his own reasons. Sasuke also gets involved with Jinnai-Kazutaka Horikawa (Seiji Miyaguchi, THE SEVEN SAMURAI), an older statesmen who seems to be someone Sasuke cannot trust.

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Steven Spielberg has got guts to make this film. It’s not that no one has said what he is saying before, but it’s never been said in such a high-profile fashion. Spielberg used his power in Hollywood to make a challenging debate on the nature of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

The film chronicles Israel’s response to the murder of its 11 athletes at the 1972 Olympic games in Munch, Germany. Israeli prime minister Golda Meir (Lynn Cohen, THE STATION AGENT) decides to retaliate. Her government sets up a secret assassination team to hunt down the men who planned the Black September attack and kill them. The leader of the group is Avner (Eric Bana, THE HULK), whose father was Meir’s old bodyguard. The other team members include hotheaded Steve (Daniel Craig, LAYER CAKE), the older, level-headed cleaner Carl (Ciaran Hinds, ROAD TO PERDITION), toy/bomb maker Robert (Mathieu Kassovitz, AMELIE) and fake ID expert Hans (Hanns Zischler, SUNSHINE). Their contact at Mossad is Ephraim (Geoffrey Rush, SHINE), who blindly believes in the cause and has the luxury to do so because he never gets his hands dirty.

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This spy adventure is a thrilling example of the genre that overstays its welcome a bit with some needless action sequences than redeems itself with a smart ending that reminds us of the film’s previous highlights.

Set during WWII, British agents, led by Jonathan Smith (Richard Burton, WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOLFF?), are assigned a mission to infiltrate a Nazi stronghold and rescue a captured American leader. Members of Smith’s crew are American lieutenant and top assassin Morris Schaffer (Clint Eastwood, FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE) and MI5 spy Mary Elison (Mary Ure, LOOK BACK IN ANGER). Complicating the mission is the fact that the Nazis have infiltrated MI5 and know about the mission.

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This film is definitely the most unique of the James Bond films. It was the first non-Sean Connery Bond film. Bond actually has a serious relationship in the film. For the most part the film plays the material straight. And the ending is quite unexpectedly sad.

George Lazenby (THE KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE) plays James Bond and after a rough outing at the start of the film, he gets to utter the line, “This never happened to the other fella,” which has spurred fans to assume that James Bond is more of a persona that various spies don over the years. However, this reading of the line discounts his interaction with Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell, THE HAUNTING), but I digress.

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Matt Damon has gotten himself a nice little franchise with the Jason Bourne character. I was quite surprised with the original – THE BOURNE IDENTITY. The new film picks up where the first one left off. Jason Bourne (Damon) and his girlfriend Marie (Franka Potente, RUN, LOLA, RUN) have been running around the world trying to keep away from the CIA. Russian businessman Gretkov (Karel Roden, HELLBOY) sends an assassin named Kirill (Karl Urban, LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS) to set up Bourne and kill him, so Bourne must set out to find the truth.

Meanwhile, new CIA director Pamela Landy (Joan Allen, THE ICE STORM) is convinced that Bourne is behind the recent assassinations in Germany and enlists other CIA agents – Ward Abbott (Brian Cox, 25TH HOUR), Danny Zorn (ABANDON) and Nicky (Julia Stiles, SAVE THE LAST DANCE) – who have dealt with Bourne in the past to aid in her search. Bourne doesn’t hide from CIA agents, drawing them out to discover why they are after him.

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