Reviews

The film depicts the personal and professional crises a writer experiences after a series of encounters with non-human beings.

The film strongly benefits from the performances of Christopher Walken and Lindsay Crouse. Walken (always engaging) manages the challenging task of making Whitley Strieber a compelling character; you care about him even if you don't necessarily like him 100% of the time. Crouse succeeds as Whitley's wife; the two together are immediately believable as a married couple.

The film is arguably the most intelligent film about the alien abduction/ visitor phenomenon. Unlike countless cheap, made-for-TV films, where the emphasis is on the sensationalistic, "shocking" aspects of the subject, COMMUNION focuses on the psychological and emotional harm the experience does. We see Strieber describe his experiences to his medical doctor, and then to a psychiatrist. Once his own mental health has been established, then (and only then) does he begin to consider the possibility that the creatures he has seen are actually real.

After questioning everyone from medical professionals to fellow abductees, Whitley realizes the only ones with the answers are the visitors themselves. At the film's climax, he willingly presents himself to the visitors. This is what makes COMMUNION transcend every other film about the phenomenon.

Director Phillipe Mora successfully creates a "you-are-there" atmosphere, letting the actors improvise a lot of their dialogue. There are two distinct moods: one, where things are brightly lit, secure, and normal; and secondly, the dark, unsettling world Strieber inhabits only with himself and with the visitors. Mora's direction is subtle, with cues in both the dialogue and a detailed, occasionally wry visual style.

Another plus is Eric Clapton's opening and closing theme music.

This is a seriously underrated film.

The director's cut (with commentary by Mora) is recommended.

Ellen Ripley awakens from hypersleep to find herself crash-landed on a prison planet, her human companions killed. Her non-human companions, on the other hand...

ALIEN 3 marks David Fincher's feature debut, and he has created a film that is very dark, atmospheric, and more unsettling than actively frightening.

Sigourney Weaver plays Ripley a third time, and gives a note-perfect performance. Charles S. Dutton plays a prisoner who becomes Ripley's ally, and is also dead-on every step of the way.

ALIEN 3 shows the progression of Ripley as a character. In the first film, we see Ripley as the ship's warrant officer. It is her job to enforce company policy, as illustrated in the airlock scene ("Yes, I read you, the answer is negative...") In ALIEN 3, we see Ripley confronted by Aaron, a "company man", and her own violent reaction to the same mindset she espoused in the original.

Despite the criticisms of ALIEN 3, it is more of a groundbreaking film than either of the previous films. ALIENS in particular not only borrowed heavily from Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" but also was grounded firmly in the Rambo aesthetic of the 1980's.

ALIEN 3, on the other hand, is in direct contrast to the popular science fiction of its time. ALIEN 3 depicts an all-too-believable universe, where there is no Force, and no Prime Directive. The innocent suffer, strength and courage sometimes fail, and no one gets out alive. ALIEN 3 tells you to put away your Starfleet uniform and your lightsaber, and to grow the hell up.

DAWN OF THE DEAD depicts the struggle of four people to survive the onslaught of the walking, flesh-eating dead. They seek refuge in a shopping mall, vacant of other humans, but infested with the living dead. Barricading the mall and exterminating the creatures trapped inside is only the beginning.

George A. Romero wrote and directed this groundbreaking film. Despite the violence and action, this is a satire which, if anything, has become more relevant today. On the surface, it is a commentary of American consumerism, and how we have become prisoners of the capitalistic lifestyle. We can surround ourselves with things, and they may create the a sense of security, but, as the end of the film demonstrates, this sense is only an illusion. And after you view this film, you'll never look at the mall or your fellow shoppers the same way again. Remember: this movie was made in 1978, before the "I've got mine" attitude of the 1980's.

While DAWN OF THE DEAD is an action film, it also serves as an effective satire of action movies. The famous "trampoline" goof, the exaggerated blood spatters, and the emphatic "hero" music (played most notably as Peter fights his way to the mall roof at the end), all poke fun at the conventions of action movies. Again, this is years before the intellectual jewels like DAYS OF THUNDER and CON AIR brought to us by the Simpson/ Bruckheimer crowd.

The cast is strong, with kudos to the four leads, who appear in almost every scene of the film. Ken Foree does an excellent job as Peter, and he has an undeniable chemistry with Gaylen Ross and with Scott Reiniger.

Romero's direction is confident and very matter-of-fact; he seems content to lock down the camera and let the plot and characters keep things interesting.

Lastly, the Director's Cut of DAWN OF THE DEAD is one of the few films that benefits from the restored scenes. Some of the footage is added gore, but most of the footage contributes to characterization. The best restoration is a second mall montage that illustrates how the group becomes fragmented, with each member going off alone to enjoy the mall in his/her own way.

Can you tell I love this movie?

Michael Crichton wrote and directed this, ahem, thriller about a plastic surgeon who unwittingly becomes involved in a series of murders of models/ actresses who were all his patients just prior to their deaths.

His own investigation into the murders reveals newly developed technology of digital imagery/ computer animation. This is, of course, the technology capitalized ten years later in TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY, and Crichton's own JURASSIC PARK.

Despite its shortcomings (and they are many), this film manages to entertain, and is perhaps the only feature film that actually benefits from commercial interruption.

The film works best if viewed as a satire. From the sketchy technology ("LOOKER Lab", etc.), to the cheap, flatly lit sets (probably intentionally "fake"), to the "commercials" starring the dead girls ("It's funny, because it's true."), LOOKER proves good for a chuckle and is, in my case, a guilty pleasure.

This sequel to Dan O'Bannon's genre-bending RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD takes the series of in a new direction, in a welcome change from the uninspired "Part II".

The plot centers on military research of the "Living Dead" phenomenon. Rather than resurrection by accident, this is resurrection in the name of bio-weaponry. The experiments go out of control, however, and soon the zombie plague spreads anew.

Evoking at times DEMONS, ALIENS, and, of course, George Romero's "Trilogy", this film is an inventive, emotional, and, yes, gory addition to the horror genre. Recommended.

Remember when you were young and you'd see a scary movie? And years later, you'd see the same movie again, and you'd wonder how you could ever be scared of something so foolish? THE CHANGELING is the exception! I saw it when I was about ten, and again when I was twenty-seven, and it's every bit as scary now.

George C. Scott portrays a widower, grieving the recent deaths of his wife and daughter. A composer and professor of music, he relocates to Seattle and rents an old mansion for its conservatory. While coming to grips with his own daughter's death, he finds himself the unwilling caretaker of the ghost of a child haunting the house.

This extremely well-written, well-acted, and well-directed film manages to frighten even after you know who the ghost is and why it's haunting Scott.

Despite a somewhat unnecessary "shock" scene and a coda that doesn't completely satisfy, this is arguably the best "haunted house" movie ever made.

Bob Peck, perhaps best known to American audiences as game warden Robert Muldoon in JURASSIC PARK, portrays a police inspector obsessed with solving his daughter's murder. His investigation leads him not only into his own past but into subversive anti-government groups, international intelligence conspiracies, and globalist elitism. This brilliant program, produced in 1986, goes beyond the Cold War and successfully predicts the darker side of globalism, the rise of New Age, pagan belief systems, and the government paranoia which keeps "The X-Files" in business. Another plus is Joanne Whalley-Kilmer as the murdered girl, who keeps appearing and conversing with her father. This cleverly serves not only an expository device, externalizing for the viewer the motivations and rationales behind one man's solitary mission, but also reminds us how unbalanced Peck's character truly is. This is an intelligent, thought-provoking program that only improves upon further viewings.