Babe (1995)

Today's film is Babe.  It's nice to share a movie from my childhood with my own child.  I remember watching this film in the theater.

Babe is a little piglet.  Pigs only have one purpose, and that is to be eaten.  All the other animals know this, except Babe of course.  He is taken to a fair where he is meant to be a prize, and he is won by a farmer named Arthur Hoggett.  A pig adopted by Hoggett?  Is this fate?

Without his mother around, he looks to a Border Collie named Fly as an adoptive mother.  Eventually he finds a talent for sheep-herding, but he does it much differently than a dog.  Dogs see themselves as superior to sheep, so they talk down to them.  However, Babe speaks to them politely, so he has no trouble herding them.  Fly's mate, Rex, does not like Babe acting out of line.  Pigs should act like pigs and dogs act like dogs.  Babe is acting out of the natural order of things and this makes Rex angry.

While Mrs. Hoggett is away, Mr. Hoggett enters Babe into a sheep-herding competition.  Will they even accept Babe as a proper entry?  After much debate they do, and he is allowed to enter.  Now if he doesn't do well, then Mr. Hoggett will be the laughingstock of the entire county.  Rex can't allow his master to be embarrassed so he runs back to the sheep to ask for help, something a dog would normally never do.  They tell him a password to use, and this allows Babe to talk the sheep at the competition.  By speaking cordially to the sheep, he herds them the best way he can.

The scenes in the movie are split up like chapters in a book, so it's easy for kids to follow along.  Azalea really liked this aspect of the movie.  And of course she loves animals.  So this is a good movie for parents to watch with their kids.  I will give it an 8/10.

Safe (1995)

Today's film is Safe.  It's about a wife who is sick and tired of being sick and tired.  And I can relate that.  I haven't watched any films in over a month because I am expecting a baby!  The fatigue and nausea makes it hard to stay up and focus on anything, especially long movies.  We don't know if it is a boy or girl yet, but we will find out in a few weeks.

Carol the housewife is easy to relate to because there's nothing unique about her.  She's a generic housewife with a great house and a great husband.  She develops a mysterious illness out of nowhere.  Is it depression?  Is it allergies? What could it be?

Carol later finds out that the chemicals of modern living are what is making her sick, so she goes to a retreat out in the country to find healing.  Personally I think her symptoms are psychosomatic, and maybe a few weeks in the fresh air will do her good.  We last see her looking in the mirror saying "I love you".  That is the first step to feeling better.  She may need treatment for anxiety as well.  It may take her a while to get better, but health is always a journey.  I like how it doesn't present her illness as some weird science fiction disease, but leaves it open to interpretation.  I will give this film a 9/10.

Ba wang bie ji (Farewell My Concubine) (1993)

Today's film is Farewell My Concubine.  It is sort of misleading because the poster features a woman, but the concubine character is really a man.  It is mostly about a friendship, but somehow fits an entire history of China in there as well.

So it starts off a long time ago in a Chinese opera school for boys.  I thought opera meant singing but this is some hard core acrobatics circus/kung fu training area and I'm not entirely sure how that helps them sing.  Two of the students grow up together and remain friends their entire lives.

The first one is Douzi, who is small and therefore thrust into more feminine roles.  His friend is Shitou, who gets to have all the masculine roles.  As they grow older, they get really good at the parts of the concubine and the king in the opera "Farewell My Concubine".

Now that they've become adults, they change their names into equally hard to spell Chinese names.  Like I just learned your names and now you're going to change them.  Douzi becomes Cheng Dieyi and Shitou becomes Duan Xiaolou.  Dieyi nows becomes a flawless expert with his makeup and fully embraces his feminine role.

Meanwhile, Xiaolou marries a former prostitute.  Since Dieyi has had a crush on him for years, he gets insanely jealous and threatens to quit performing with him.  Eventually they do make up though.
It's easy to feel bad for Dieyi because people have always tried to change him to fit their own agenda.  His own mom cut off his extra finger so he could go to secret opera ninja training camp.  Then, he is forced to play lady's roles from childhood on which messed his own sexual views about himself and everyone around him.  His friend knows that he has feelings for him, but he'd rather marry a hooker.  Even his creepy sugar daddy makes him drink turtle blood or some other magic shit to help his voice.  He doesn't have a choice in any of this stuff.

Meanwhile, the country of China changes as the Communists take over.  The opera people don't mind this as long as they get to keep performing.  It is interesting to see how much China changed throughout the beginning of the twentieth century, but the movie never presents it as a history lesson.  The final scene shows them as old men, still doing the same roles they've always done.  Dieyi uses this opportunity to kill himself during the performance.  And I'm like, why?  You're old.  Just die of old age.  It was a good movie, but it had a stupid ending so I will give it a 8/10.

Three Kings (1999)

Today's film is Three Kings.  Is it a war drama, a comedy, or social commentary?  Maybe it is all three!  At the end of the Gulf War in the early 1990s, 4 soldiers set about to retrieve some stolen gold.  And they get it fairly quickly about 35 minutes into the film.  The hard part will be getting the gold where it needs to go.

As they already trying to transfer the gold, the people of the region keep needing their assistance.  Pesky people and their constant need for help!  The soldiers do the right thing and help the citizens, putting their needs over the desire for gold.  There is a lot of commentary over the real reasons we went over there, as well as the current state the area is in.  Nothing that we don't already know, but  remember this film was made before Junior Bush sent troops to Iraq and reopened old wounds.  In a sense, this film could have been set more recently and we would not have seen much difference.  I will give this an 8/10.

The English Patient (1996)

Today's movie is The English Patient, winner of the 1996 best picture award at the Academy Awards.  But come on, we all know what the greatest movie of 1996 is.  Come on and slam and welcome to the jam.

This film is pretty good, it's just way too long.  And there are way too many subplots.  At the heart of it all, it's just a classic story of a wife cheating on her lovely husband with a much hotter guy.

So, we first find the English Patient as he is being carried away from a burning plane.  He's actually Hungarian but that's not important right now.  What's interesting is that we expect him to be some kind of hero, but he's not.  He's a normal person, and even has some bad traits.

The English Patient's real name is Count Almasy, and his nurse is Hana.  I did not even recognize her until she cut her hair!  She is the same lady from Chocolat.  I love that movie.  She doesn't want to transport him any longer, and knows he only has days to live.  So, she moves into an abandoned building with him like a makeshift hospice.  But she didn't check for bombs or booby traps!  Luckily a crew comes in later to handle that.

Through flashbacks, we learn of Count Almasy's story, and it is pretty sad.  Meanwhile, a romance blossoms between Nurse Hana and a handsome bomb removal guy.  The whole movie, from the beginning of Count's romance to his death, covers the entirety of WWII.  So we see a bit a history in a specific place.  I didn't like Count and Katherine's romance, I thought they were overly rich selfish people.  But Hana and the bomb removal guy's romance was more genuine.

The movie was overall okay, but it ended up with too many plotlines and dragged on because of that fact.  I will give it a 6/10.

Candyman (1992)

Today's film is Candyman.  It is based on an urban legend.  I used to have a book of urban legends which I would stay up all night reading because I was too scared to sleep.  If you look in a mirror and say "Candyman" five times he will appear and kill you with his hook hand.  Or, you can summon Bloody Mary or the Bell Witch the same way.  Do urban legend people have nothing better to do than hang out around mirrors?

 Helen is a college student working on her thesis on urban legends. What on earth is she majoring in?  She is most interested in Candyman because he haunts the Cabrini - Green area, and may be responsible for a few deaths there.  She believes the murders were committed by gang members who are using the legend to frighten people.

She finds out the murderers came in through the wall where the medicine cabinet was. I too have a hole in the wall where a medicine cabinet should be.  It was hidden behind a photo frame when I bought the condo.  Helen also discovers that her apartment was supposed to be housing projects.  Which is hilarious because she is standing in the biggest apartment I have ever seen.

All this attenting to him summons the real Candyman,  who sets out to destroy Helen's life.  Candyman actually enjoys his urban legend status and wants her to join him.  He makes it so she doesn't really have an choice in the matter.  I like this movie because it brings ghost stories into more modern times, has no screaming teenagers and little gore, and acknowledges modern urban legends.  All ghost stories don't have to be in Victorian times.  I will give this film a 7/10.

Ta'm e guilass (Taste of Cherry) (1997)

Today's film is Taste of Cherry, which was filmed in Iran.  The story focuses on a suicidal man, but what is interesting is how it was made.

 The man wants to kill himself for an unspecified reason.  He wants to be buried under an unspecified certain tree, he just needs someone to throw dirt on his body, and he will pay for it.  He asks three strangers to help him.  The first one is a timid soldier who runs away.  The second one is a seminarian who lectures him on the morals of his choice.  Fjnally, he finds someone who will help him.  This person attempted suicide before and shared his story with him.

So what is unique is how this was filmed.  It was more ad-libbed than scripted. The director would actually sit in either the driver or passenger seat and start up a conversation. Then the film was edited together and it looks like the two actors are talking to each other in the car.




 It ends with the main guy lying down in his makeshift grave and the scene fades to black.  Then, all if a sudden, the filmmakers appear with all their cameras and equipment. Then they film some random soldiers rolling around in the grass.  The ending is like a punch in the face surprise, like Just Kidding! It was a movie the whole time!  I will give this film a 6/10.

L.A. Confidential (1997)

Today's film is L.A. Confidential, which takes a look at police brutality and corruption in the 1950's.  The movie was filmed in 1997, and the 90's were not a good time for L.A. cops, what with the beatings of people and all.  This movie shows that this sort of problem has existed for ages.  Trust me I know from experience.

This film could be classified as a neo-noir, which is a noir film not made in the 1940's and 1950's.  During this time, no building in the city could be taller than City Hall, and they achieved this through really well-aimed cameras.  A lot of the scenes were actually based in real life.  The "Bloody Christmas" scene where cops beat up Mexican prisoners occurred in 1951.  The arrest of gangster leader Mickey Cohen did lead to a war to replace him.  Well, that would happen anytime a leader is arrested, because there is always someone to take their place.

I think that it is funny that a film about American cops would star two Australian guys.  Another thing to note is that not a single person in this film is "good".  There are actually three main characters.  Bud White (Russell Crowe) is temperamental and violent, and the corrupt chief uses this knowledge for his own gain often.  Exley (Guy Pearce) steps on everyone to get to where he wants to be.  Jack Vicennes (Kevin Spacey) is another detective, who is famous and gets paid off by a sleazy tabloid writer, played by Danny Devito.  They investigate a shooting in a diner which ultimately involves the chief of police. They decide to work together to do the right thing, but by then it might be too late for them.

Of course with a noir there has to be a femme fatale.  She is Lynn, played by Kim Basinger.  She did not age well.  Anyway, her character works at a place where hookers look like movie stars.  Places like that did exist back then just like they do today. Lynn looks just like Veronica Lake, who is most famous for Sullivan's Travels, but actually did play a femme fatale in some films.  So the cycle goes on and on!  Unfortunately, the romantic boat sinking movie also came out this year, so this film was denied the Best Picture award.  That is too bad, because there were a lot of great performances in this film.  I will give this film a 9/10.

Dead Man (1995)

Today's film is Dead Man.  At first, it seems like a normal Western.  But really, it's an art film and it becomes more obvious as the film goes on.

It stars Johnny Depp as William Blake, who is traveling by train to the Wild West to get a job.  But when he gets there, there's no job!  No one in the town welcomes him, and through bad luck, manages to get shot.  He meets a Native American named Nobody who helps him, but lets him know that the bullet is in a position to kill him.

So, Nobody is played by Gary Farmer, who actually is First Nation.  And, this film is entirely in black and white.  But, I'm still not going to tell my husband the truth because it's still funny.  The black and white is actually an important aspect to the film, because they really play with shadows a lot.  I think of old German Expressionism, like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari while I'm watching this.  The pictures in Dead Man were inspired by Ansel Adams, a photographer who did all the pretty landscape shots a long time ago.

There are some elements of a normal Western, like a posse, and gunfights, but soon we get into weird territory.  A lot of the movie is weird.  But we know this is about Blake's journey into the next life. Nobody mistakes Blake for the similarly named poet and this affects how he treats him.  What if he knew he wasn't the same person? I wonder about that.

This was unlike any Western I have ever seen. I will give it a 7/10.

Thelma & Louise (1991)

I get irrationally angry when characters make bad choices in movies.  So this movie really frustrated me.  Today's film is Thelma & Louise.  Thelma and her friend Louise decide to spend a relaxing weekend at a cabin, fishing.  Their trip takes takes a downturn when they stop at a bar.

Thelma spends all night dancing with some creep at the bar, and after drinking too much, he takes her outside and tries to rape her.  Louise comes to the rescue and shoots him.  Their plan now is to hightail it out of there and go to Mexico.  There are two ideas that are a lot better.  One is that they could tell the police what happened and that it was self defense.  Or they could go to the cabin and pretend everything was normal, and get rid of the gun.  These are some good life pro tips in case you murder someone.

After they make the bad choice to run, they continue to make even worse choices the entire movie. Most of these have to do with Thelma thinking with her vagina and not her head.  Like she picks up a male hitchhiker.  Mainly because he's hot, but she needs to think about their safety more.  Louise gives her her life savings of $6,700 to safeguard in her hotel room.  Why she trusted her with all of the money instead of splitting it I don't know.  Anyway, hot hitchhiker returns and they have some hot sex, and he describes his convenience store robbing career.  So what does Thelma do?  She leaves all the money on the dresser, not the safe, and leaves it alone with a stranger in the room.  Of course it gets stolen.  These women are so unbearably stupid I cannot cheer them on.  This whole time I was told it's a girl power movie.  Yeah a stupid girl movie.

Early 90's selfie!

This is also one of those few movies where I knew the ending before even watching it.  That's because it has been parodied in lots of cartoons and comedies. Also there is so much denim.  I remember wearing a denim jacket and thinking how adult I looked.  Now I am an adult finally and I see this film with everyone wearing all the denim and they look stupid.

After losing their money, Thelma robs a store, and then they lock a cop in his trunk, and then they blow up a truck.  They're on a death mission.  If they would have gone to the police in the beginning, nothing would have happened to them. But they figured they had nothing to lose so they kept doing bad stuff.  I'm glad my daughter didn't watch it with me.  This film glorified all the bad stuff they did.  They're not heroes and they're not good people. I will give this film a 6/10.

Natural Born Killers (1994)

Today's film is Natural Born Killers. I was excited about it because it was written by Quentin Tarantino.  It was a very creatively made film.  I just didn't care for it overall.

Both Mickey and Mallory Knox came from traumatized childhoods, and band together to travel across America killing people.  They leave one person alive to tell the story and eventually become media darlings.  America loves serial killers.  They're dangerous, exciting, and mysterious.  Mickey points out that technically they are mass murderers, but since they do it more than once, I think it counts.  There are so many movies, TV episodes, documentaries, and books about serial killers.

The film has a highly visual style that requires the viewer's full attention.  There are a lot of extra images in the background, and random commercials as well.  It's like the media: bombarding us with violence then commercials to calm us down and make us want to buy stuff.  Coca-cola let the filmmakers use their delightful polar bears feature in the movie without bothering to read it which I think is hilarious.

Mickey and Mallory are caught and inexplicably wind up in the same jail.  Mickey pulls a daring escape in the middle of a live interview and they both escape into the wilderness.  Maybe they shouldn't have been put in the same jail at all, that would've solved that problem.  I also liked Wayne, played by Robert Downey Jr, because he was everything wrong with the media.  He only cared about himself and his ratings and ended up with nothing.

The movie was visually exciting but I don't think I would watch it again.  I will give it a 6/10.

Naked Lunch (1991)

Today's movie is Naked Lunch.  I often have that on the weekends.  Let's talk about this film. It is bizarre but it is awesome.

It starts with Bill, who is an exterminator.  His friends and wife have been using his bug powder as drugs.  Bill is called in by the cops and a bug, which talks out of his butthole, tells him to kill his wife.  It only gets weirder from here.

Bill does end up killing his wife, Joan, but by accident.  He tries the bug powder drug and decides to play William Tell with her and shoots her in the head.  This seems kind of out of the left field, but there's a reason from this.  The author of the book, William S. Burroughs, accidentally shot his wife playing the same game.  So this event actually happened.

Bill leaves home and goes to the "Interzone" - Morocco, which he also does in real life.  This film was made during the Gulf War so it was actually filmed in Toronto. Just fyi.  Also fyi- Jaime from Mythbusters worked on the props in the movie! He built the mugwumps!

Bill becomes a writer and writes lots of reports on his typewriter.  During his drug episodes, the typewriter turns into a beetle looking thing with a talking butthole.  We also learn a lot about Bill's thought process. The real William S. Burroughs was an openly bisexual drug enthusiast, and the film is a semi-biopic about him writing the book.  The real book is about... I don't know.  All of the people in the film are also based on real people.

Bill meets an American couple in the Interzone, Tom and Joan (the wife, Joan, looks exactly like his wife, Joan). She seems like an important character that we will look out for.

After Bill's typewriter eats Tom's typewriter (yes eats) Tom kidnaps Bill's typewriter for revenge and destroys it.  Bill and Joan use an Arabic typewriter to write some smut and it turns into a wily humpcrab and gets tossed off the balcony by some dominatrix looking lady.  What we don't know yet is that the dominatrix is actually Sheriff Brody in disguise and he is a drug lord.  (Random thought. He also played the Captain on Seaquest 2032 and I loved that show when I was little. Does anyone else remember that show?)

Crap I thought I could explain this film and I can't.  It's really easy to dismiss it as being about drugs.  Well it is about drugs, but it's also a lot more than that.  It's more about the difficulty of the creative process.

After Tom destroys the typewriter, Bill's adorable boy toy Kiki takes him to an elven kiln where they make him an oddly shaped typewriter with +5 writing power.  Look at it! It's like a doctor told it to open its mouth and say ahhhh.  This is so funny.

This thing is called a mugwump.  Wait, wasn't Dumbledore a mugwump? Yes, he was a Supreme Mugwump until the Ministry of Magic booted him. A mugwump is an amphibian like creature, like a murloc except it has no spines.  It also has tubes that drip out jizz, you know like a man has a tube, I'm just gonna stop here. The jizz gets you high.  The mugwump produces the jizz at a high rate in the midst of the creative/writing process.  It's like mana for writers!  It can also make jizz without it, but at a much slower rate.  Bill finds many of them chained up surrounded by junkies.

Can Bill stop the drug lord?  Well no he doesn't want to.  I will give this film a 9/10 because it is the most creative film I have seen in a long time.

Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)

Today's film is Four Weddings and a Funeral.  Hugh Grant always looks so tired in every film he's in.  He needs to take some vitamins.  I liked this film because we get what we are promised.  It says "Four weddings and a funeral" and we get four weddings and a funeral.  This already gets bonus points.

So, Charles is afraid of commitment and not a very good boyfriend, either, as we learn.  He sees Carrie, an American, at a friend's wedding.  A few months go by, and he is invited to another wedding, which is great because the bride and groom fell in love at the previous wedding.  Charles and his roommate Scarlett are perpetually late to everywhere they go, and this includes very important events such as weddings.  It's funny to see them rush around.

Charles encounters Carrie again, and they spend the night together.  But surprise! She's engaged to a rich dude and never told him.  She's not married yet and already cheating on her husband, and Charlie is an unwitting pawn.  She is trouble.  She invites him to her wedding.  Since she is now unavailable, Charles settles for marrying one of his past girlfriends, but Carrie shows up and screws everything up.  Charles leaves his bride at the altar for Carrie, but not before getting punched in the face. 

The funeral in the title was for his close friend, who dies at Carrie's wedding of a heart attack.  You'd think it would be Carrie's husband who would die and free her to marry Charles.  Nope, she divorces her husband.  Since she was cheating on him with Charles, what's going to stop her from cheating on him as well? Oh, and they kiss in the rain.  That is really cliché, but I went to England before and it rained every day. So it might just be the weather. 

If you like Hugh Grant, then you'll like this movie.  He gives a strong performance.  Also, I was pleased to see a character that doesn't speak that can be taken seriously.  My daughter, Azalea, can now somewhat parrot whatever I say, which is funny when we watch Jeopardy! but still cannot form her own words or sentences.  She's great at signing though.  It's rare to see someone who talks like her in a film.  I will give this film a 7/10.

Muriel's Wedding (1994)

Today's film is Muriel's Wedding.  It's a film that teaches the lesson, be careful what you wish for because it might come true.

Muriel is a teenager who listens to ABBA records all day and dreams of the perfect wedding. She tries to be friends with the popular crowd who want nothing to do with her.  She has a spacey, absent-minded mom and an emotionally abusive dad who constantly promotes himself.

She is offered some blank checks by her parents to start a beauty consultant job (like Avon).  She immediately wipes their bank account clean and goes on vacation.  She goes to the very place where the popular girls are.  While there, she meets the free-spirited Rhonda, where dropped out of the same high school.  They become friends and move to Sydney together.

Muriel is still obsessed with the perfect wedding, doing some crazy things in her quest.  Such as trying on random dresses in the city and marrying a random guy out of an ad.  She gets the fairytale wedding she dreamed of, but she lost her friend in the process.  Her friend needs extra care and has to move back in with her mom, something no one wants to do.

After Muriel's mom's death, she realizes that she is a terrible person, and compares herself to her terrible dad.  She tells her husband she is tired of living a lie, and leaves him.  She goes to Rhonda's house and asks her to come with her back to Sydney.  Rhonda is happy to see her change and goes with her.  I liked this film because even though Muriel does terrible things, she learned from her mistakes and reconnects with her friend.  I will give it an 8/10.

Magnolia (1999)

Hi, today's film is Magnolia, which starts off really good, but then, well you'll see.

The movie consists of several plots happening all at the same time, and you're gonna need to pay attention to all the different stories. As we watch, we see how the characters are related to one another.

Ok, here comes the tangled web of plot.  Earl Partridge is dying of cancer and wants to see his son again, the one he abandoned as a child.  The child is now grown up and runs one of those scummy "harass women at night clubs so they'll sleep with you" seminars.  Meanwhile, a game show host is also dying of cancer.  He goes to see his daughter, but she screams and throws him out of the house.  The game show consists of kids challenging adults at a quiz/trivia show.  The child star knows lots of trivia, but is too pressured, especially by his dad, who uses him as a meal ticket.  Also, a former child quiz show star grows up to be a total loser.  The game show host's daughter is confronted by a nervous cop for a noise violation.  Later, he asks her out on a date.

I was really tempted to post a pic
of the "rain of frogs glyph" from World of Warcraft.

So, we see all these people as they interact with each other; and it's intriguing.  What will happen to them? Will they find happiness?  Then, it gets more and more dramatic.  Like, too dramatic.  Like, come on, this is too dramatic.  Then, you just know one of them is going to try to shoot themselves.  Because that is so cliche.  When it happens, I wasn't the least surprised, but then, it starts raining frogs.  This, itself, didn't shock me.  Because, throughout, there are a ton of references to Exodus 8:2, which basically talks about the plague of frogs.  But, to me, it felt like the movie was getting so dramatic with all these people, that they didn't know how to end it and just tacked on a weird frog rain ending there.

The worst part is that the movie was great up until the 2 hour mark.  I thought it was going to end there.  But, it just had to drag on for whole other hour.  I can't believe I stayed up for three hours to watch this with the stupidest ending I have ever seen.  I will give this film a 6/10 because the acting was good for the most part.

Badkonake sefid (The White Balloon) (1995)

Today's film is Badkonake sefid (The White Balloon) and it comes to us from Iran.  It's a pretty simple film with some decent children acting (child acting? I don't know).  If your kids are able to read subtitles (or if you describe it like I do) they might enjoy this film too.

So, in Iran, people are getting ready for the new year celebration.  This isn't the worldwide new year in January everyone celebrates, this is the solar new year, which next will happen on March 21st. Sort of like a Spring Equinox celebration.  Anyway, everyone puts a goldfish in their house to welcome new life for the new year.  A little girl named Razieh desperately wants a new goldfish.

Her family's pond in the courtyard is full of goldfish, except she wants to buy one, because you know how kids are.  Razieh reminds me of my daughter, Azalea, in a lot of ways. Except the speaking part of course.  They are both determined to get what they want and are very stubborn.  Also, they can whine like nobody's business.

Finally, the mom relents and lets her go buy a goldfish.  They cost 100 tomans, and she has a 500 bill she gives her.  I would have never given her money much less let her go by herself.  She almost loses it a few times, and finally it falls down a grate.  Some adults try to help her, and some don't.  Later, her brother comes and helps her fish it out.  Even though Razieh was careless in dropping the money, she was mature enough to figure out how to retrieve.  Still, I wouldn't give my child cash and expect something not to happen.  I will give this film a 7/10.

Ringu (1998)

Today's film, Ringu, comes to us from Japan, and basically started our obsession with Japanese Horror films in the '90s.  It relies on tension and mystery to carry the story.  There are no jump scares, and no gore.

It starts off as an urban legend, anyone who watches a certain film will die within a week of seeing it.  Reiko Awasaka is a reporter researching the deaths of the teenagers that watched this film.  Her niece passed away of an apparent heart attack, which we know really came from watching the film.

Throughout the film, we follow Reiko as she uncovers the mystery of the film.  She also watches the film. So, she knows the film will kill her, but she watches it anyway.  She also makes a copy for her ex to watch.  They learn about who created it and where they last live, so they go up there.  Reiko's ex uses his straight up magic psychic powers to look into the past and see Sadako, who created the video as her curse.  Also, their son watches the video because they didn't lock it up properly like they should have.

They see that Sadako's dad pushed her into a well, which they determine is close to the site where the video was found.  They go there, and enter the space below to find the well. They decide to go into the well to find her body.  So, yeah, it's pretty gross how she's done there when she finds the skeleton.  Reiko's time is up, but she survives.  As a result, they believe that they have broken the curse.  But they didn't.  So, her ex dies and Reiko realizes why she lived and he didn't.  She had made a copy and he watched it.  So, to free yourself from the curse, you have to make a copy and make someone else watch it.  She has to find someone to watch a copy in order to save her son.  That's where the name Ringu comes from, it has nothing to do with an actual ring, it refers to the cyclical nature of Sadako's curse.

This movie was okay, but I think I already knew too much about it anyway.  So, it really didn't affect me as much.  I haven't seen the American remake yet, either.  I am giving this film a 7/10.

Trois couleurs: Bleu (Three Colors: Blue) (1993)

Today's film is Three Colors: Blue.  While yesterday's film was a thrilling mystery, today's is a sad drama.  We start off with our main character, Julie, losing her husband and daughter in a car accident.  She is unsuccessful at killing herself in the hospital, and is later released to her humongous house complete with housekeeper and gardener.  Turns out her husband is a famous composer, but we learn that maybe Julie was the one doing the actual composing.  She packs up and leaves her house and gets an apartment without telling anyone.

I liked this because Julie is played by Juliette Binoche, who also played Vianne in Chocolat.  I love how she acts, it's just unfortunate she had to have that awful 90's haircut.  Also, the scenes are filled with only blues, cool tones, and earth tones, nothing bright.  So, in every scene, whether it's something big, like the beaded chandelier thing, or the light on someone's face, there is an element of blue.

I didn't like how Julie handled her grief.  She never talked to anyone about it, she just shut down inside herself and moved away from any kind of support system.  She even has sex with someone she knows cares about her, just to dump him and run away, prompting him to look for her for months.  He does find her and together they finish her late husband's last music composition.  The chorus is some Greek bible verse which I'm not going to bother to look up.  Anyway, if you're depressed please talk to somebody, not do anything that Julie did.  I will give this film a 5/10.

Cube (1997)

Today's film is Cube, where an unseen villain places unsuspecting victims in, literally, a giant Rubik's Cube, where they must work together to navigate through a maze of traps.

I don't want to give too much away, because the suspense is the best part of watching this.  Which rooms will have traps?  What are they?  Who will die?  Let's say that only two people are actually useful, in that they can use their math skills to solve the puzzle of the Cube.

Who made this Cube?  Was it the government?  Was it aliens?  Is the government run by aliens?  Also, the cop who takes control and later beats people is by no means unexpected and should not be considered a spoiler.  After the puzzle of the Cube has been solved, what happens to those who survive?  What is on the outside of the Cube?  A new, bigger Cube??  What if its a series of cubes-within cubes within cubes???  Where does it end people?

This movie was enjoyable because it was a psychological thriller with a touch of mystery, and enough gore to keep me somewhat entertained.  I do enjoy good gore.  I will give this film an 8/10.

Lola rennt (Run Lola Run) (1998)

Today's film is Run Lola Run, a film which is part fantasy, part video game, all with a fast paced soundtrack.  Lola is our fiery-red haired heroine who must come up with $100,000 in twenty minutes in order to save her boyfriend, Manni.  Manni was supposed to deliver it to his boss, but left it on the subway, where it was picked up by a homeless guy.

Lola thinks, then runs down the stairs of her apartment.  The running down the stairs scene is animated.  This will be explained momentarily.  Her plan is to ask her rich dad, who runs a bank if she could borrow the money.  That's the best plan she has for now.  As she runs, she encounters different people, and we see snapshots of their future.

Her dad is at work in his office, talking to his mistress.  Lola barges in as his mistress confesses to being pregnant.  Lola's dad throws her out of the office and tells her that she is not his biological child and that he will stay with his mistress.  Lola walks off crying.  Meanwhile, Manni becomes impatient and goes to rob the nearby grocery store, hoping to regain the money he lost.  Lola arrives too late, and agrees to help him.

They get the money and are stopped by police.  One of the cops shoots Lola, killing her.  She starts whispering and then the whole movie starts over again, and we see the cartoon scene of her running down the stairs.  This is where the film is like a video game, the cartoon part is the cut-scene that never changes no matter how many times you play it.  The choices Lola makes during the twenty minutes determine what happen to her and Manni.

This time, Lola runs towards the bank, where her dad and mistress are talking, as usual.  This time, Lola comes a bit later, so her dad learns that his mistress' baby is not his at all.  Lola comes in and asks for the money.  Of course, it's too much and he won't give it to her.  Lola decides to rob the bank and escape.  She runs towards Manni, hopeful that she was successful.  Manni then gets hit by an ambulance and dies.

So, their choices influence each other.  When Lola does the wrong thing and robs the bank, Manni dies.  When Manni does the wrong thing and robs the store, Lola dies.  Lola has to find some other way to get the money.  Lola starts the level over again and we see the cut-scene once more.

In this level, neither Manni nor Lola rob anyone.  Manni chases down the homeless man and demands his bag of money bag.  The homeless man agrees if he can have Manni's gun.  I personally would not give a homeless person a gun, but he does anyway.  Also, Lola doesn't go to the bank at all, but sees a casino.  She thinks, please just this once, and goes to place some bets.  The luck factor in video games is a lot different than in real life, so she wins, and leaves with her winnings to find her boyfriend.  So not only did Manni get the money back himself,  but Lola got a ton of money too.  And they lived happily ever after.

Every time I watch this film, I find something new or something I didn't notice before.  This movie is very fast paced.  Every choice Lola makes not only influences herself, but Manni and even random people.  The snapshots we see of the minor character's lives change each time she passes them.  I will give this film a 10/10.