Movie Review Land: Mar 13, 2011

GIRL, INTERRUPTED

GENRE: Biographical/ Drama
MADE: 1999
CAST: Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie, Whoopi Goldberg, Brittany Murphy
DIRECTOR: James Mangold
WRITER: Susanna Kaysen, James Mangold, Lisa Loomer, Anna Hamilton Phelan

PLOT: A film based on Susanna Kaysen and her book about her 18 month visit to a mental hospital in the 60s, recounting the details of the colorful patients that became her friends.

PARALLEL UNIVERSE: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, The Virgin Suicides, American Beauty

SCORE:

MALLRATS

GENRE: Comedy/ Romance
MADE: 1995
CAST: Shannon Doherty, Jeremy London, Jason Lee, Claire Forlani, Ben Affleck
DIRECTOR: Kevin Smith
WRITER: Kevin Smith

PLOT: Two young men dumped by their significant other go to the mall to hang out, where a day in the mall can change everything.

PARALLEL UNIVERSE: Clerks, Dogma, Chasing Amy

SCORE:

GROUNDHOG DAY

GENRE: Comedy/ Drama/ Fantasy
MADE: 1993
CAST: Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott
DIRECTOR: Harold Ramis
WRITER: Danny Rubin, Harold Ramis,

PLOT: An obnoxious weather man finds himself on his yearly visit to a little town to report on the ground hog that will announce the first day of Spring. Too his complete panic and extreme dismay he finds himself living the same day over and over.

PARALLEL UNIVERSE: Stranger Than Fiction, The Hudsucker Proxy, Rushmore

SCORE:

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART II - FEATURETTE SNEAK PEAK

I anxiously await the last Film of the Harry Potter saga, here's a sneak peak at the coming film with some short words from the actors.

IDENTITY

GENRE: Drama/ Mystery/ Psychological Thriller
MADE: 2003
CAST: John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Amanda Peet
DIRECTOR: James Mangold
WRITER: Michael Cooney

PLOT: During a rain storm one evening ten strangers become stranded at a Nevada Motel when the way out of town becomes flooded. The night becomes a fight for their lives when they realize they are being killed one by one by someone amongst them.

PARALLEL UNIVERSE: Shutter Island, The Others, The Machinist

SCORE:

BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY

GENRE: Romance/ Comedy/ Drama
MADE: 2001
CAST: Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant
DIRECTOR: Sharon Maguire
WRITER: Helen Fielding, Andrew Davies, Richard Curtis

PLOT: An awkward British woman makes it her goal, for fear of spinsterhood, to find love.

PARALLEL UNIVERSE: About A Boy, Notting Hill, Sliding Doors

SCORE:

EMPIRE RECORDS

GENRE: Comedy/ Drama
MADE: 1995
CAST: Anthony LaPaglia, Liv Tyler, Johnny Whitworth, Robin Tunney, Renee Zellweger
DIRECTOR: Allan Moyle
WRITE: Carol Heikkinen

PLOT: The eccentric but dedicated group of young workers of an independent music store scramble to keep it from being bought out by a large chain.

PARALLEL UNIVERSE: Mall Rats, Party Girl, Can't Hardly Wait

SCORE:

BEING JOHN MALKOVICH

GENRE: Dark comedy/ Drama/ Fantasy
MADE: 1999
CAST: John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener, John Malkovich
DIRECTOR: Spike Jonze
WRITER: Charlie Kaufman

PLOT: A puppeteer and his love interest, his coworker, find a way to make easy money when they stumble upon a portal in their office that leads into the head of John Malkovich the movie star. There on ensues a bizarre love triangle between the puppeteer, his wife and the co-worker.

PARALLEL UNIVERSE: Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, The Hudsucker Proxy

SCORE:

AIMEE & JAGUAR

GENRE: Romance/ Drama/ War/ Foreign
MADE: 1999
CAST: Maria Schrader, Juliane Kohler, Johanna Wokalek
DIRECTOR: Max Farberbock
WRITER: Max Farberbock, Rona Munro

PLOT: Set in Berlin in 1943, an unconventional Jewish woman lives under a false identity and falls in love with a German woman, the wife of an officer of the Nazi Regime.

PARALLEL UNIVERSE: The English Patient, Europa Europa, Life Is Beautiful

SCORE:

NATURAL BORN KILLERS

GENRE: Crime/ Drama/ Romance
MADE: 1994
CAST: Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Tom Sizemore
DIRECTOR: Oliver Stone
WRITER: Quentin Tarantino, David Veloz, Richard Rutowski, Olive Stone

PLOT: A man and woman with troubled childhoods fall in love and become psychopathic murderers that are glorified by the media.

PARALLEL UNIVERSE: Kill Bill vol.1, Capote, Pulp Fiction

SCORE:

AN EDUCATION

GENRE: Drama
MADE: 2009
CAST: Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina, Rosamund Pike
DIRECTOR: Lone Scherfig
WRITER: Nick Hornby, Lynn Barber

PLOT: Set in London in the 1960s, a young girl in high school with dreams and aspirations meets a charming much older playboy that takes advantage of her naivete.

PARALLEL UNIVERSE: Mona Lisa Smile, About A Boy, Pretty In Pink

SCORE:

THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT

GENRE: Drama/ Mystery/ Sci-fi
MADE: 2004
CAST: Ashton Kutcher, Amy Smart, Melora Walters
DIRECTOR: Eric Bress, J. Mackye Gruber
WRITER: J. Mackye Gruber, Eric Bess

PLOT: A young man finds a way to alter the path of his life by reliving the past.

PARALLEL UNIVERSE: The Jacket, Donnie Darko, Identity

SCORE:

FULL METAL JACKET

GENRE: Drama/ War
MADE: 1987
CAST: Matthew Modine, R. Lee Erney, Vincent D'Onofrio
DIRECTOR: Stanley Kubrick
WRITER: Gustav Hasford, Stanley Kubrick, Michael Herr

PLOT: Set in 1968 Vietnam, a U.S. Marine observes the effects of the brutal training and of the Vietnam War on his fellow Marine recruits.

PARALLEL UNIVERSE: The Virgin Suicides, A Clockwork Orange, Sleepers

SCORE:

BEETLE JUICE

GENRE: Comedy/ Fantasy
MADE: 1988
CAST: Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder
DIRECTOR: Tim Burton
WRITER: Michael McDowell, Larry Wilson, Warren Skaaren

PLOT: A young couple in the country are tragically killed in a car accident and cross over to the other world becoming ghosts trapped in their own home, this becomes a serious problem when they are confined to the attic as an obnoxious family from the city move in.

PARALLEL UNIVERSE: Edward Scissorhands, Mars Attacks!, Hook