Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1990)

Based on the award-winning play of the same name and directed by the author, this film focuses on two minor characters from Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and explores their interaction with the play's characters and events. 

    This is a perfect movie. Everything about it is absolutely brilliant. Tom Stoppard took his stage play and transitioned it flawlessly to the silver screen without losing any of the play's original punch and hilarity. I love this movie.

    The actors are all cast perfectly. Tim Roth and Gary Oldman are charming, adorable, clueless and tragic all at once as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, childhood friends of Hamlet who seem to remember nothing of themselves and are trapped in the web that is Shakespeare's "Hamlet." Their chemistry is sparkling and without it, the movie would be boring as so much of the text is dialogue between the two best friends. Richard Dreyfuss is also magnificent, which surprised me as I'd only seen him in "Jaws," "Close Encounters," and "What About Bob?" He is simultaneously hilarious and menacing as the Lead Player, the head of the troupe responsible for the play that convinced Hamlet his uncle had indeed murdered the king. Throughout the film, you get the sinister feeling that Dreyfuss knows what's going on somehow, and one scene in particular where the actors put on a play for the castle's servants, your suspicions are confirmed but never explained. 

     The whole look of the film - sets, scene transitions, camera work - is so layered and adds so much to the movie, I was in awe of Stoppard's pure genius. The movie almost looks like a theater stage where our heroes wander about, sometimes going in circles no matter how hard they try to get somewhere else. The characters from "Hamlet," Claudius, Gertrude, etc, all overact as if they were on stage, but still maintain enough subtleness that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern do blend into the tapestry. 

    When you see this movie, prepare to think. Prepare to think about it for a very long time. It's been a few days since I've seen it and I still have occasional dreams about it and still get super excited whenever it crosses my mind. I feel like there's still so much that the movie is trying to teach me. That's the sign of a perfect movie. This is that movie.  

Tremors (1990)

Natives of a small isolated Southern town defend themselves against strange underground creatures which are killing them one by one - imdb.com

    This is one of those comedy/horror movies, more on the comedy side I'd say. The monsters are not especially interesting and, quite frankly, horribly made. They're scarier when you can't see them, I will admit, it is not a pleasant thought to be dragged under the ground and torn to bits by something. The reactions of Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward and the rest of the gang are fun.

     This is an ok monster movie/comedy - it's fast and focused on the humor. It's really about the character interactions with each other and the monster, so if you want to see lots of special effects and gore, this is not the film for you. Kevin Bacon is a good actor, so he does the best he can, given the bizarre circumstances he finds himself in. He's relatively natural though, I can picture a lot of people reacting like him. His name in the movie though...Valentine. Really?! They call him "Val," but STILL. 

    Ok, the truth must come out. I saw this movie because it was Reba McEntire's film debut. I thought it would be funny to see her in a monster movie since my experience of her is limited to her family comedy TV show and duets with Kelly Clarkson. It wasn't as funny as I thought it would be. I would skip this one if I were ya'll. It's not worth it. The ending is horrible. 

The Princess and the Frog (2009)

A fairy tale set in Jazz Age-era New Orleans and centered on a young girl named Tiana and her fateful kiss with a frog prince who desperately wants to be human again. 

      Promoted as a return to old-school Disney, this movie features the first African-American princess ever and the first hand-drawn Disney in five years, the previous being Home on the Range. This was a very good movie. It has a lot of elements of classic Disney moments but also updates the formula by having our princess' (though she's actually a working girl) dream being operating an upscale eatery and the unique setting of New Orleans. 

     The voice acting was excellent. The highlight for me was Jenifer Cody, who plays Tiana's rich best friend. She takes the role of a ditzy side character to a whole new level with voice inflections to rival Scarlet O'Hara and a speaking speed so quick it can make your head spin. She's hilarious. I also liked that, as in Beauty and the Beast, all the voice actors did their own singing. 

     The animation was very pretty. I felt it was a bit over the top in some places (a scene featuring three swamp-men hitting each other for what seemed like way too long), but one song sequence in particular where Tiana sings about her dream to her mother was very unique and well-done. 

     The key difference in this film was the villain. As a voodoo man, known by other characters as The Shadow Man, our villain is incredibly evil. All of his song sequences are extremely dark (singing masks, voodoo dolls complete with pins dancing and beating drums, shadow demons chasing our heroes) would disturb many parents and young children. Towards the end of the movie, the level of frightening images seemed too high and unnecessary. 

    The music was good. Again, Randy Newman composed it, but thankfully, I don't recall him singing. The highlights were "Almost There" and "Down in New Orleans," two of the Best Song nominees for this past year's Oscars. Tiana has a superior voice to most Disney princesses, and the character singing of her co-stars gave a different flavor to the score. All in all, a very well-done, albeit darker, Disney princess movie. 

Gloomy Sunday (1999)

A fictionalized story of the composition of the song "Gloomy Sunday" which became known as The Hungarian Suicide Song. Written for love, the song soon becomes the theme for a tale of tragedy. 

     First of all, the label on this movie is deceiving. It says "based on a true story," but just about every character is fictional so do not rely on this movie for the actual story of the song "Gloomy Sunday." However, as a story, this one is frighteningly beautiful.

     The movie focuses on the relationship between the owner of a fancy restaurant, his beautiful waitress lover, and the young pianist they hire. Soon, the pianist falls in love with Illona, the waitress, and composes "Gloomy Sunday" for her birthday. The song quickly becomes a hit in Hungary and all the world, but leaves behind an trail of tragedy as several people who hear the song commit suicide. Things become complicated when Hitler's army begins to implement The Final Solution and the love triangle's life is threatened. 

      Some viewers might be very annoyed by Illona, who lives her life rather selfishly, claiming that she needs both men to be happy, and they comply. However, I found that her character is almost angelic and that she has a mysterious power over people that makes her behavior excusable, at least, that's what the movie is trying to say. The actress playing her is very beautiful and subtle. The men playing her lovers are also very good, very different, and they both adore her.  

    This is a depressing movie. There's not a sense of happiness at the end of the film, but I suppose there is a sense of victory. The song "Gloomy Sunday" is magnificent, it is a brilliant thread that connects all the people and events in the movie. The whole idea for the movie is very creative, too. The movie is long, almost two hours and seems longer, but it has to be finished once it's begun. We do become attached to the characters. 

*Lots of nudity* 

The Producers (1968)

A sneaky producer and continuously nervous accountant team up to make a huge profit on creating the worst play on Broadway.

    Old school comedy! The movie that spawned the play that birthed the movie! This was truly a classic comedy - super quotable lines, imitable characters, and the time-tried combination of an aggressive anti-hero and his twitchy sidekick. Who couldn't love it.

     This movie redeemed Gene Wilder for me. I have seen him as Willy Wonka and vowed I would despise him for the rest of my life. I saw him as young Frankenstein and it was affirmed that I would never get that screaming, shouting, frantic voice out of my ears. Then, I saw him as a producer/accountant. He was adorable. I think it was because he only shouted twice in the movie and for a very short time. Zero was the funniest, though, of course, I just love him in an early scene where he tries to calm down a hysterical Gene Wilder by tossing water at him and grinning. They had chemistry most actors only dream of sharing. 

     It was a great length at a clipped hour and a half, so the style of humor had not gotten stale. It isn't everyone's cup of tea, I guess, there's a story-line woven throughout where Zero's character romances elderly ladies for cash so he can produce his plays. That might disturb some. It's a kind of bawdy humor, not "sexual," per say, like today's comedies (Knocked Up, The Ugly Truth), but it uses the idea of sex for humor. Regardless, it's very Mel Brooks, a very well-done comedy, and those lines will be in your brain forever, just waiting for the opportunity to be spouted off. 

Vier Minuten (2006)

An elderly piano teacher at a women's prison trains an extremely talented but violent young prodigy for a contest. 

     The music really makes this film. It expresses the emotional life of the characters when words can't and it binds two very different women together. This was a very interesting film, it didn't exactly feel like a foreign film, but the use of subtlety and homo-eroticism was definitely very European. 

     The acting was very good. I loved how Bleibtreu's stern agony contrasted so brilliantly with her young costar's, who is all grinding teeth, blood on the piano keys, and sweat-drenched rage. The supporting characters blended in the background nicely, it's not really about anyone else besides these two women, but they have their place. There's the prison warden, the childishly-selfish guard, the young nemesis...it all fits.

     The one thing about this movie I felt was unnecessary was that homosexual element. Ok, so this elderly woman never loved anyone except for a summer love who happened to be female. We get it, being lesbian makes it interesting. I felt that was a rather blunt attempt to be different. Maybe she should have lost a daughter or a husband, I dunno, there are lots of options besides a lesbian lover.

    The story is predictable, but that makes it satisfying. There's no unnecessary moments of clarity and rapid healing, you don't assume these characters are all going to be "all right" from now on, they just have been touched. It all unfolds slowly, there's no pre-story jammed down the viewer's throat, we have to watch and gradually get to understand the characters and why they do what they do. It's great.

The Jane Austen Book Club (2007)

A group of women and one man form a book club devoted to Jane Austen novels only to find their own love lives taking on the shape of those classic romances.

     As someone familiar with Jane Austen, this movie definitely falls into the category of smart chick-flicks. It's got heartbreak, male-female dynamics, sex, and a certain sweetness to it that I found positive. However, it wasn't perfect.

     Because the movie focuses on so many characters, there's bound to one that slips into the cracks. In this movie, it was the lesbian daughter of one of the main women. It made her seem like a childish bed-hopper who finds random women on the sets of her numerous injuries. A certain montage of the relationships shows her and her current girlfriend as if we were just as invested in her love life as we were in the other character's, when really we feel like it's just another doomed one-night stand. It made lesbian relationships seem shallow. 

     I loved Hugh Dancy. He had the perfect balance of being physically attractive and yet non-threatening, creating an adorable sci-fi geek who is eager to experience everything and totally comfortable to sit around on a patio with older women. Alas, men like him do not really exist. Emily Blunt was another of my favorite's as well, though she did struggle with her character's writing, it was very hard to make her character likeable, but with a face like Blunt's, who could see her crying and not jump up to comfort her? Seriously. 

   This movie was like a shooting star - it was quick, its star trail quickly fades, but while it lasted, it was completely charming and hopeful. It wasn't bogged down by crudity or sex jokes, it was about romance and the pursuit of love in all its missteps and victories. It was a movie that makes me smile.