(A-) The Shyamalan backlash may never end, but I'm not buying into it. This is a superb supernatural horror film in absolutely all respects.

(B-) This tale of some foolish National Guardsman running afoul of a group of largely unseen cajuns takes too long to get going, but it hits nicely once it does, and has some effective visuals.

(B+) This fairly obscure Siegel/Eastwood film is something of a forgotten gem. It's a rarity, a southern gothic film. It may seem like nothing more than period melodrama initially but, true to the genre, things get very, very bad and twisted by the end.

(B-) This Norwegian crime thriller reminds of another european thriller "The Vanishing", because it's a killer-thriller that approaches the story in a cold, cerebral way. Too much so, in fact, and it ultimately proves too flat and lifeless, even as it has a clever, well-constructed plot.

(B) A bit long, but still an intense, well-crafted prison drama. Just don't be expecting a documentary on the Turkish prison system.

(B) More of the same, of course, but perhaps the best one yet, not that there is much separating the various films.

(A-) This movie rules, simple as that.

(B+) An underappreciated effort from director Frankenheimer. The whole sci-fi concept of trading your old identity for a new, better, younger one wasn't new even then, but they do it well, and it has a delightfully bleak ending.

(B+) Hackman is truly excellent in this drama about a cautious, isolated surveillance man. It has the elements of a classic, but falls short due to the overly slow pacing in the first half.

(B+) Technically/Visually brilliant and always watchable, yet it strains under the weight of its own bullcrap. "JFK" has a trillion lies in it, ignoring testimony, ballistics, common sense etc. Some excuse Stone, saying it's not a documentary. True, but "JFK" is meant to promote conspiracy theories about JFK, and Stone lies to do so. Sorry, LHO acted alone -- and this is propaganda.

(B-) Well-made and well acted, but it suffers from a subject matter that just doesn't appeal to me all that much. Douglas does give his definitive performance here, though, no doubt.

(B-) Yet another 70's satanic cult movie. Starts out straight but it becomes extremely campy in the second half. Still, I just like this sorta movie, and it has some nice cinematography and an amusing cast. (Shatner, Tom Skeritt, and Ernest Borgnine (as the head of the cult!)) I hope you like goo, cause that's what you're gonna get with "The Devil's Rain".

(B+) Tarkovsky's famed sci-fi epic is, unsurprisingly, a bit on the slow side, but it's the thoughtful, philosophically interesting work.

(B+) Fairly rad follow up to "At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul" which improves on the original on almost all fronts. (It is a bit unfocused, unlike the original, and could be trimmed a bit.) The goofy, Bava-gone-totally-mad hell sequence is especially entertaining.

(B-) Herzog's art-horror remake maintains the general manner of the original despite being a color/sound film from the late 70's. More admirable than entertaining, perhaps, but worth a watch, and it's nice to see any vampire film which eschews the whole tortured/romantic angle that has been so prevalent in recent decades.

(B-) Fairly standard haunted house film, but it's consistently entertaining in a campy-creepy way, as you'd expect from Curtis and this particular cast. Karen Black once again proves that she has the rubberiest face of any actress from her generation.

(B) Ultra-bizarre film positing that Max Shreck, star of "Nosferatu", was a real vampire. It's mostly a sort of satire of egomania on the part of directors and film stars. It drags slightly even at it's brief length, but it's novel enough to be worth a watch.

(B+) Fun horror/comedy/adventure/monster movie from S. Korea. Has a surprising amount of heart and unexpectedly good CGI.

(B) Low-key, largely realistic police procedural concerning the first known Korean serial killer. Slow building, but effective. Reminds of the more recent "Zodiac".