Reviews

*ALIAS SPOILERS*

Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) is a College Student and a CIA Agent (or so she thinks). Her boyfriend Danny Hecht (Edward Atterton) proposes to her and she (very, VERY stupidly) blabbers to him about her spy job (which she had sworn to keep SECRET). Her boss Arvin Sloan (Ron Rifkin) somehow finds out and has Danny killed.

Sydney, having revealed herself a threat to SD-6 (what Sydney has been told is a branch of the CIA), is next on the chopping block, but is saved by her father Jack (Victor Garber) who reveals himself as a SD-6 agent (and come on, how -stupid- is Sydney not to understand that 'selling airplane parts' is an obvious cover, just as much if not more than her working at 'Crèdit Dauphin'? Next time, choose a better cover, JJ) who's also a double agent for CIA, since SD-6 is actually a part of the Alliance of 12, a terrorist organization.

So, she becomes a double agent herself (Agent 00Drama Queen - License To Overdramatize Everything) and her handler is young CIA Agent Michael Vaughn (Michael Vartan) whose father, also a CIA Agent, was killed on duty by ruthless Irina Derevko (Lena Olin), who also ends up being Sydney's mother... and all of this while maintaining her college-girl facade for her friends - the useless Francie Calfo (Merrin Dungey) and the reporter Will Tippin (Bradley Cooper) who has decided to find out the truth about Danny's murder...

'Alias' is a high-octane and kind of pretentious divertimento, which can engage your interest as much as a Steven Seagal action movie can, if you ignore some enormous clichés, some of the weakest female characters ever seen - especially Rachel, who may have been named after the actress to help her remember how to act - it didn't work - and was just dreadful, Sydney, whose character sometimes is a grown woman, but for the most part is an insufferable teenage girl, Francie the human black hole, who really served as practically nothing until she was killed and replaced by a clone and about the writing for her - when she was good, she was bad, but when she became bad, she was awful, but Irina excluded, some really contrived plot twists (Season 3 especially) and a lesson in how NOT to develop an on-screen romance (the Sydney-Vaughn relationship was twisted and turned so much it looked like a spiral at one point).

Basically, it's fun fluff, and can be exciting, but if you're looking for gripping spy drama, go somewhere else.

Alias: 5/10.

*Shutter SPOILERS*

Thun, a young photographer and his girlfriend, Jane, accidentally hit a woman while driving. They decide to leave the dead woman and drive away.

Later, Thun discovers an unexplained event when he finds a mysterious shadow appears on his photo..

And the mystery gets deadlier as Thun's friends begin to kill themselves... What's the truth? A really entrancing horror/drama from Thailand, 'Shutter' intrigues and creeps out with a ghost that at the end turns out to be in love with her 'victim'. Everybody is in part, the direction is appropriate, and the script doesn't seem to have any plot hole.

And, even though I have only seen the trailer and bits and pieces of the remake, I'm sure that it's grossly inferior to this one.

Shutter (2004): 9/10.

*SPOILERS Hongryeon*

Corea. Su-Min and Su-Yeon are coming back to their beautiful yet creepy home after having been in a psychiatric hospital for unexplained reasons, and come home to the Father and Stepmother.

But right from the beginning, something feels very wrong, and the atmosphere between the three women, thanks also to terrifying and unexplained accidents, gets tenser by the second, up to arrive to the breaking point, which will disclose a world-shattering truth to Su-Min...

It's kind of hard to talk about 'Two Sisters' (yes, that's the Italian title) without spoiling the Big One, but the brilliance of this movie can't be denied. It deservedly enters into the Horror Classic, managing to be both very tense and extremely sad, once you get to the end, without faltering once.

Yes, the praise is certainly deserved.

Janghwa, Hongryeon: 9/10.

*Duck SPOILERS*

Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx) becomes the new Governor of Freedonia, and things start quickly to go right down the drain in the funniest, most whimsical way, especially when Firefly starts courting Mrs. Teasdale (Margaret Dumont), a rich widow who donated $20 million to Freedonia's cause.

The country ends up going to war with a neighbor country, Sylvania, and the war won't stop until Sylvania's scheming Ambassador Trentino (Louis Calhern) is caught by Firefly, his assistant (Zeppo Marx in his last appearance in a Marx Brothers Movie), and two former spies of his, who now have switched sides (Harpo Marx and Chico Marx).

This is the plot, threadbare as it is; the genius of this movie (which bombed when it opened in theaters, go figure) is interweaving the subtle satire with some of the funniest physical (the mirror gag, the aborted trips of Gov. Firefly, and the very end, in which a knee-jerk patriotic act by Mrs. Teasdale is rewarded by the Marx brothers with a rain of apples on her are a few examples) and dialog (at Chicolini's trial, Firefly declares 'This guy may act like an idiot and look like an idiot, but don't be fooled; he really is an idiot!') comedy moments of all time.

This is probably the Marx brothers at their funniest; see to believe.

Italian Title: La Guerra Lampo Dei Fratelli Marx (The Marx Brothers' Lightning War) Duck Soup: 9/10

*Monty Python's SPOILER WARNING*

Various sketches by the iconic British comedy group of Monty Python about Life, Death, their meaning, and everything in between.

Their sardonic outlook doesn't spare the Catholic Church ('Every Sperm Is Sacred'), the Protestant Church, affluent couples, big corporations, restaurants, soldiers... and managing to stay ultra-fun.

The most memorable part is obviously the one about the VERY FAT guy who literally explodes when being given a mint, but honorable mentions go to the six people who have an uninvited guest - nobody but Lady Death - at their dinner. 'Every Sperm Is Sacred', and to a disturbing interpretation of 'Organ Donor'.

Monty Python's Flying Circus: 9/10.

*Prom SPOILERS*

The inflatable doll Donna Keppel (the bot-ox-looking and completely unable to act her way out of an open door Brittany Snow) is going to Prom with her cardboard cut-out boyfriend Bobby (Scott Porter, who's done way better), her best friends, the PC Prom Queen Lisa (Dana Davis) who shows that Hey! Black girls can be morons too! and the hot but 'lights are on but nobody's home' Clair (Jessica Stroup, who at least is pretty) and the respective boyfriends, Michael and The Black Dude.

But a man (go figure) from Donna's past is going to be at the Prom too; it's Richard Fenton Quackshell (Jonathon Schaech, who looks like a poor loser, and I was too busy laughing at him to find him even remotely scary), the science teacher who's obsessed with her - and since Snow is as attractive as a piece of glass stuck in my neck my question is 'WHY?' - and has killed her family three years prior, for 'us'. Yeah, buddy, killing a girl's family will really get you into... jail. And he's going to kill again... WHY? Why not just kidnap the bitch? Since the police doesn't seem to care, especially Detective Wynn (Idris Elba, who should really get a better agent) - I mean, the dude escaped from the stupidest High Security Prison In The World and they come to know this only THREE DAYS LATER???, nor seem to do her uncle and aunt, who ask the police 'not to ruin Donna's prom' making me believe that the whole family got into the gene pool when the Lifeguard wasn't looking.

And so, the End - of those Body Snatchers and of all good sense, if there was ANY in this movie to begin with - begins, and Donna is going to feel the terror... yeah right.

The 2008 'Prom Night' is not a remake of the 1980 original if not in name and setting (a small town's high school) - or not, since in this movie it looks like the local high school's prom night is some sort of Academy Award thing - and that's just as well. As Fangoria said, this movie, even with the Godawful remakes like 'Hitcher', 'April Fools' Day', 'Black X-Mas', 'HalloweeN', 'Psycho', Texas Chainsaw Massacre', 'One Missed Call', 'Shutter', 'Day Of The Dead', 'Dawn Of The Dead' and 'When A Stranger Calls' and many others, manages to be the very worst of the recent slew of remakes. It's nothing but a series of clichés rehashed under a dubious semblance of plot, with characters who have no personality at all, nothing but a face and a name, situation that when are not contrived (I mean, the whole ending is an exercise in stupidity) they're impossible (the moronic Donna going upstairs on the elevator to get her mother's shawl while there's a fire alarm - the elevator wouldn't budge off the ground) or ripped off (Silence Of The Lambs anyone?), and the direction is flat and lifeless... did a zombie direct this? Or Michael Bay? Anyway, I'm afraid of what these tools are going to do with 'The Stepfather'... let's keep our fingers crossed.

Prom Night (2008): 1/10. (If I could give it less, I would.)

*REC SPOILERS*

Barcelona, Spain.

Angela Vidal (Manuela Velasco) is a young TV Anchor, who works for a local network hosting a program called 'While You're Sleeping' which this time is gonna document a typical night in the life of Firemen, in particular two, Manu (Ferran Terraza) and Alex (David Vert). The night goes slow, and Angela and her cameraman, Pablo (who we never see, except for his shoes and a hand once in a while, but who is voiced by Javier Coromina) are hoping for an exciting accident to come their way.

But when an assistance call for an old woman in an old apartment building takes a turn for the weird, the two begin to regret their decision, as it seems they've ended up right into a deadly and terrifying infection...

REC has the audacity and inventive to mix two kind of horror movies that we thought would end up being horrid together: the 'first person' Cannibal Holocaust-Blair Witch Project-Cloverfield-Diary Of The Dead movie and the 28 Days Later-Night Of The Living Dead movie, with amazing results, managing to draw you in at the beginning and then keep the tension going even in the quiet moments with the menace still looming, and having a lot of terrifying scenes - think about the woman handcuffed to the stairs while the infected run in, or the Ninha Medeiros attacking Pablo, or Alex being thrown down the staircase, or Angela being taken away by the Ninha.

A movie not to miss!

REC: 9/10.

*The SPOILERS' Face*

The short begins with a Nazi band - with Hirohito, Mussolini (who wittily states 'We would leave if we could'), an enormous Nazi, a very tall and lanky Nazi and a very effeminate Nazi singing the title song, which basically makes fun of Hitler.

Cut to Donald Duck, who lives in a minuscule house in this 'Nutziland' where EVERYTHING either is Swastika-shaped or refers to Hitler (including clouds and picket fences). Also his house is decorated in the 'Hitler style' (the Hitler-cuckoo is a hoot!).

After having gotten dressed in paper clothes and hat, Donald manages to eat a slice of bread so hard it requires a saw to cut, drink coffee made from one single bean and spray 'Aroma of Bacon and Eggs' down his throat, before the Nazi band makes him read the Mein Kampf - to 'improve his mind' - before coming to get him to work.

Donald is a 'willing worker of Nutziland' who has to work 48 hours a day for the Fuehrer making shells, and having to salute Hitler's image at the same time.

He gets a 'vacation mit pay' working out obsessively in front of an image of the Alps. The poor guy gets bombarded with Nazi propaganda, and ends up being 'chosen' by special degree of the Fuehrer to work overtime.

Eventually, he goes insane and hallucinates various things, among whom switching places with the shells, the Nazi orchestra made of shells, and even himself as Hitler, being saluted by a shell, as the song 'The Fuehrer's Face' keeps on being played faster and faster, until...

Donald wakes up from the Nazi nightmare and realizes he is safe in America.

Awesome, awesome short where Disney openly makes fun of Hitler's insanity. An Academy Award-winner classic not to miss!

The Fuehrer's Face: 9/10.

*Breakfast At SPOILERS'*

Young Paul Varjak (George Peppard) lives into an old house as a kept man by a rich lady, and his downstairs neighbor happens to be Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn), a young woman with an unusual behavior and way of life, who manages not to let life bring her down, with a special cure; going to Tiffany's.

According to Holly, 'nothing bad can happen to you in there'. In the time they pass together, Holly goes through a lot; being an unknowing Corri, meeting - and saying goodbye to - her former husband, losing her beloved brother, and even going to jail, and Paul falls in love with her. Will Holly return the affection? Based on the 1956 book by Truman Capote, 'Breakfast At Tiffany's' is a classic of the romantic genre, with stellar acting by Hepburn and Peppard, great music ('Moon River'), awesome direction (by Blake Edwards) and a greatly-written script.

Don't miss it! Breakfast At Tiffany's: 9/10.

*Roswell SPOILERS*

Max (Jason Behr, 'The Grudge'), Isabel (Katherine Heigl, 'Knocked Up') Evans and Michael (Brendan Fehr, 'The Forsaken') are three teenagers living in the New Mexico town of Roswell.

But ordinary teenagers they are not, as teenager Liz Parker (Shiri Appleby, 'A Time For Dancing') will find out after she gets shot in her father's diner, the 'Crashdown Cafè'.

One by one, her friends Maria (Majandra Delfino) and Alex (Colin Hanks, 'Orange County') will discover their secret, and be careful with the town's sheriff, James Valenti Jr. (William Sadler, 'The Mist') and his son Kyle (Nick Wechsler).

And later, another alien, Tess Harding (Emilie De Ravin, 'The Hills Have Eyes' (2006)) arrives in town, the plot thickens...

An interesting, funny one-of-a-kind show, 'Roswell' is thoroughly enjoyable each and every time I manage to find it on TV; it also brings back nice memories of the time it first aired where I live (from 2000 onwards), when I was 15, and so related to them. We also discussed the episodes at school! Don't miss it if you have the chance to watch it.

Roswell: 9/10.

*Ladyhawke SPOILERS*

France, 1239.

A young thief, Philippe (Matthew Broderick, 'Wargames') is saved from sure death by the enigmatic Navarre (Rutger Hauer, 'The Hitcher'), a cavalier who travels with his trusty hawk.

But the more time he spends with Navarre, the more Philippe thinks something weird's going on. Every night Navarre disappears and a big black wolf appears, as does a mysterious young woman named Isabeaux (Michelle Pfeiffer), while the hawk also vanishes.

Soon Philippe finds out that Navarre and Isabeaux are in love and under a curse cast on them by the Bishop (John Wood) which make Navarre become a wolf by night and Isabeaux a hawk by day.

The two will need to face the Bishop as man and woman for the curse to end... but how? Beautifully shot and acted, 'Ladyhawke' is certainly an interesting and creative fairytale, which inspired also a Charmed episode (Magic Hour). Watch it, you won't regret it!

Ladyhawke: 9/10

*The Three SPOILERS*

A young turtle gets the chance of his life as for a fortuitous accident, he gets to narrate a TV Special.

The story he decides to tell is one of how Donald, Goofy and Mickey, after having been saved by the Three Musketeers as kids, made their life goal to become Musketeers themselves.

Sadly, Captain of the Musketeers (who all look remarkably like Goofy) is none other than Pegleg Pete, who quickly deems them too chicken (Donald), too stupid (Goofy) and too short (Mickey).

Soon after, though, he makes them Musketeers and instructs them to protect Princess Minnie and her Maid of Company Daisy.

Why? But because he's counting on their incompetence to be able to kill the Princess and become King himself! So, to save the Princess and the Kingdom, our three will have to grow up and act quickly...

It's an enjoyable movie, even though they over-exaggerated Donald's lack of courage. Ideal especially for kids.

The Three Musketeers (Donald, Mickey and Goofy): 8/10.

*Cold SPOILERS*

This show takes place in a seldom used city in TV shows such as Philadelphia, where the Cold Case Unit of the Philadelphia PD tackles a case each episode.

Being a Cold Case unit, the cases take place in the past, whether recent or remote; they solved cases that range from a few months ago (August 2007) to 88 years ago (May 1919).

The main character is Lilly Rush (Kathryn Morris), who until Season 3 was the lone girl in the cast. She seems to have a knack for this kind of cases, and she moved to this unit from Homicide. The other members of the unit are John Stillman (John Finn), who's like a father to Lilly, her partner Scotty Valens (Daniel Pino), with whom she forms a winning squad, Nick Vera (Jeremy Ratchford) who can make suspects and witnesses chirp out whatever they may try to hide, new addition to the team Kat Miller (Tracie Thoms) and Will Jeffries (Thom Barry), who's been in the PD for enough time to know where all the bodies are buried.

Together each week they reopen a case (and sometimes more than one) and try to find out the truth, by interviewing anyone involved in the case and studying the evidence.

Whenever a suspect or a witness begins to talk, we see a flashback scene that is filmed with footage of the year of the crime, in the style of the time, and with well-known music of the time to comment it.

To tie the flashback scenes well with the contemporary part of the show, whenever a character related to the murder is introduced there is a brief flash showing him/her as how he/she looked like when the murder was committed.

At the end, a ballad from the year of the crime plays while the murderer is arrested - with a flashback showing the younger self arrested -, the reactions of the people involved in the case, both the witnesses and the cops, and one of them 'seeing' the victim for a brief second.

'Cold Case' is probably the most engaging crime drama in years, bar none, and the only one I make an effort never to miss.

Watch it, and you'll understand why.

Cold Case: 10/10.

*Soul SPOILERS*

On their way home from a rave, friends Cassie (Melissa Sagebrecht), Matt (Wes Bentley), Annabel (Eliza Dushku) and Sean (Casey Affleck) get in a terrible accident.

Sean dies, and the other three try to get on with their life. Cassie, though, begins to experience mysterious phenomenons, like seeing and hearing Sean, mysterious dreams, and a lot of confusion...

This movie stood on Artisan's shelf for more than a year, and after having watched it, I can understand why; the actors do their best (which in case of newcomer Sagebrecht really isn't much), but the script, which tries for a 'Carnival Of Souls' - 'Jacob's Ladder' thriller, is way too muddled, having the ending being both obvious and confusing (quite a task!).

Nothing to say about the directing if not that it's the most anonymous this side of Alan Smithee.

End line - this movie is boring. Handle with care.

Soul Survivors: 3/10.

*Serendipity SPOILERS*

Jonathan (John Cusack) and Sara (Kate Beckinsale) meet in a department store while shopping for their significant others, and they begin to fall in love.

Sara, though, decides to leave to Destiny to determine if they'll meet again...

We flash-forward to a few years later, precisely seven, and both Jonathan and Sara are going to get married, but signs that remind them of each other begin to appear aggressively in their life, and they decide to find each other. Jonathan enlists his best friend Dean (Jeremy Piven)'s help, but it seems they keep on missing each other...

A nice, interesting and funny movie (though Eugene Byrd's character will get on anyone's nerves quickly), 'Serendipity' gives a quite unique spin to the romantic comedy genre, funny, engaging and enjoyable.

Serendipity: 8/10.

*The Great SPOILERS*

A Jewish barber (Charles Chaplin) saves a fellow Tomanian soldier, Schultz, during the First World War, and loses his memory. When he comes back to his barbershop, Tomania has a new leader, who looks exactly like him, Adenoid Hynkel (Charles Chaplin), a tyrant who fuels the hate for Jews to distract people from the failing economy, but who is not very bright (as most of those around him are). Schultz, now a member of the new government, tries to help him and his community survive the attacks from the 'grey shirts', Hynkel's cronies, but things don't look good at all...

This movie is, in one word, awesome. It satirizes Hitler as plainly as one can (and also Mussolini, who shows up near the end), but manages to not overdo it and be also moving and intense. Charles Chaplin gives two great interpretations and everyone else is in part.

The ending speech, especially, is nothing short of poetry. Everybody should watch this movie, especially politicians.

The Great Dictator: 10/10.

*Stay SPOILERS*

Sam (Ewan McGregor) is a young psychiatrist who tries to help a young man, 20-year-old Henry Letham (Ryan Gosling) who tells him he's going to kill himself the night of his 21st birthday, which is in three days.

For Sam, it's the beginning of a surreal nightmare, which seems to involve also his girlfriend Lila (Naomi Watts), and seems to have something to do with a disastrous car accident on the Brooklyn Bridge.

Without giving away the ending, this movie is really interesting and well-thought out, in the tradition of 'Carnival Of Souls', 'Identity', 'Jacob's Ladder' and 'November' (even though probably even comparing 'Stay' to those movies gives the plot twist away).

The actors play their parts convincingly, the story manages to keep you guessing even while revealing part of the truth, the director knows very well what he's doing (which is paramount to movies of this genre) and the way the movie has been shot really creates a warped reality feel.

If you're a fan of this genre, don't miss it. If you want every single little detail spelled out (people who support horrible movies like the 'TCM', 'Dawn Of The Dead', 'The Hitcher', 'Black Christmas', 'Fog' and 'HalloweeN' remakes) this is not for you, as it requires you to think.

Stay: 9/10.

*White Noise 2: The SPOILERS*

Abe Dale (Nathan Fillion) witnesses the murders of his wife Rebecca (Kendall Cross) and son Danny (Josh Ballard) by a seemingly-insane man (Craig Farbrass), right after they began feeling weird and saying 'Tria Mera'.

A few weeks after, he attempts suicide and is brought back. From this near-death experience, Abe gains a psychic power; he can see the people who are going to die soon, because to his eye, they glow.

He saves three of them, among whom young nurse Sherry (Katee Sackhoff), but soon finds out that saving them did more harm than good, and so he has to put things right.

Well, I really liked this movie; it had an interesting script, good actors and a competent movie director/co-editor.

A solid A- movie. Not exactly an A Movie, but too good to be called a B Movie either.

White Noise 2: The Light: 9/10.

*Il Nascondiglio Degli SPOILERS*

A woman (Laura Morante) finally leaves the psychiatric hospital in which she has been for 15 years, following her husband's suicide.

She resolves herself to get on with her life and open an Italian restaurant in Davenport, Iowa, and precisely in the old building called Snakes Hall, which hides a horrible secret; on Christmas Night, 1957, when the house was used as a pensionate for old women run by nuns, the Mother Superior and the lone two guests were horribly murdered, while the two Novices that were also there vanished into thin air...

And as she delves deeper and deeper into the mystery, everything seems to become more and more dangerous, and not only for her...

An intense, taut thriller which genially exploits the 'haunted house' theme, 'Il Nascondiglio' ('The Hideout' in the USA) is also helped by an expert director, Pupi Avati ('La Casa Dalle Finestre Che Ridono') with actors such as Laura Morante ('Un Viaggio Chiamato Amore'), Treat Williams ('Hair', 'Everwood') and many many others, and a well-written, suspenseful script.

For the fans of suspense and terror, a movie not to miss!

Il Nascondiglio: 9/10.

*Gossip SPOILERS*

Three young journalism students, Derrick (James Marsden), Jones (Lena Headey) and Travis (Norman Reedus) have an interesting idea for a Journalism class project; they'll tell a rumor and then track it as it spreads.

The selected victims are the Golden Boy and Girl of the campus, Naomi (Kate Hudson) and Beau (Joshua Jackson).

But the gossip, naughty but nice at first, quickly takes a turn for the worse, destroying both Naomi and Beau's lives.

Jones wants to tell the truth, Travis hides in his art and Derrick... what about Derrick?

And why didn't he tell anybody that he used to go to school with Naomi?

For this matter, why does Naomi react with rage at the mere mention of his name?

Enticing, interesting and thought-provoking, 'Gossip' is one of the most enjoyable and underrated thrillers of the '90s - early '00s, with a talented cast, an inspired directing - by Elizabeth Shue's husband, no less - and a very well-written (especially for a post Scream teen-college thriller) and tight script.

Watch it... and then remember it when you talk with your friends about rumors.

Gossip: 8/10.

*SPOILERS On The Orient Express*

Early '30s: a man, Ratchett (Richard Widmark) is murdered, stabbed twelve times, in his own cabin on the Orient Express. Poirot (Albert Finney) is on that very train, and begins to work on the case as soon as he can, finding out that Ratchett was none other than a mafioso called Cassetti (funny trivia - the name is actually the Italian word for 'drawers'), who had been responsible of the kidnapping and the brutal murder of a little girl, Daisy Armstrong, five years before, which also brought the death of five other people - Daisy's mother, her unborn child, Daisy's father, the falsely accused maid and the maid's mother, and that revenge for Daisy could be a motive.

Any of the twelve passengers whose cabins were situated in the same carriage as Cassetti's becomes automatically a suspect, but who actually did it?

The secretary (Anthony Perkins)? The butler (John Gielgud)? The Russian Princess (Wendy Hiller)? Her German Maid (Rachel Roberts)? The Hungarian Count (Michael York) and his wife (Jacqueline Bisset)? The American chatterbox (Lauren Bacall)? The train controller (Jean-Pierre Cassel)? The Swedish Missionary (Ingrid Bergman)? The Colonel (Sean Connery)? The Teacher (Vanessa Redgrave)? The PI (Colin Blakely)? The Italian (Denis Quilley)?

Find it out in one of the most interesting, most involving and overall better movies based on Agatha Christie's mystery novels.

The acting is top notch, the script is tight, the director knows how to work with such a rich cast in a handful of locations... long story short, a movie not to miss!

Murder On The Orient Express: 9/10.

*Identity SPOILERS*

10 people - a limo-driver and former cop (John Cusack), a spoiled TV actress (Rebecca DeMornay), a former prostitute trying to change her life around (Amanda Peet), a cop (Ray Liotta) and the convict he's transporting (Jake Busey), a young couple of newlyweds (William Lee Scott and Clea DuVall), a family (Leila Kenzle, John C. McGinley and Bret Loehr) and the motel owner (John Hawkes) - end up getting stuck in a motel because of the pouring rain.

But not long after they're all settled, one of the guests is found dead, with the key for room Number 10. A few minutes after, the key for room 9 is found in the hands of a second dead body, and as the murders continue, the keys keep on being found near the bodies, and the survivors huddle together to survive the macabre countdown, but who is the killer among them? And what does a mass murderer (Pruitt Taylor Vince) have to do with them?

'Identity' is quite the surprise; it starts off as a 'Psycho-meets-And Then There Were None' thriller, and after half of the leads have been killed, it shoots out a plot twist that makes you rethink what you saw until then in one of the cleverest ways I have ever seen. A second plot twist is the killer's identity - don't rule any of the 10 off until they die.

The acting is wonderful, especially from Loehr, McGinley, DuVall, Scott, Peet and Cusack, the script is tight, the music and lighting are quite appropriate, the scenery is creepy as Hell and the directing is very good.

I consider this a movie to own.

Identity: 9/10.

*High Fidelity SPOILERS*

Rob Gordon (John Cusack) has just been left by his girlfriend Laura (Iben Hjejle), who's just moved out and, it seems, in with Rob's martial-arts practitioner, world-music listener upstairs neighbor Ian Raymond (Tim Robbins).

This brings him to ponder about what he's accomplished this far in his life, which isn't much; he opened a record store called 'Championship Vinyl' which, to borrow a Martin Balsam line from Psycho, looks like it was intentionally hidden, and has two 'employees' (they wondered in one day and he decided to keep them); the meek and quiet Dick (Todd Louiso) and the boorish, arrogant and just plain obnoxious Barry (Jack Black) who's such a snob he drives a client off just because he asked for a vinyl of 'I Just Called To Say I Love You', and and basically thinks he's better than anyone else, and... well, not much else.

So, he decides to make a Top 5 of the five girls who broke his heart the hardest and see them again, to understand why he's always been dumped, and in the search he'll find himself and a new direction...

Very cleverly, this comedy offered a quite realistic view of a man's outlook on life and relationships, all the while remaining genuinely funny and faithful to the original awesome novel (even with the London/Chicago switch), which took a team of talented writers, among whom main star Cusack. The director is very good and so are the actors - even though I wanted to kick Jack Black's character in the teeth right after he made his obnoxious entrance, and kept on wanting to for the whole film.

And of course the music; and to complete the package, a cameo from the Boss Bruce Springsteen, giving Rob some advice.

Don't miss this!

High Fidelity: 9/10.

*Knocked Up SPOILERS*

Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl) works behind the scenes at E! Network. One day, after taking care of a Ryan Seacrest (playing himself) seriously angry with self-important 'celebrities' such as the incredibly talentless Jessica Simpson (who ironically appears later very briefly as herself in a silent cameo role) she is summoned to her boss (Alan Tudyk)'s office and is told that she's been promoted to on-screen reporter.

She goes out with her control-obsessed (during the 'pedophiles in our neighborhood' scene I wanted her husband to close the laptop on her hands) sister Debbie (Leslie Mann).

Ben Stone (Seth Rogen) is the quintessential loser; he has no work but checking out movies to find out when and where the stars (female... I'm guessing they were going to open a male section after the launch) get naked (from which stems one of the funniest quotes: 'When Harry Met Sally's... ahem, happy place'), is tubby, unshaved, loves to play retarded games and smoke pot with his friends.

He happens to be in the same club Alison is, they meet, flirt with each other and before they know it it's off to the bedroom.

Eight weeks later... Ben's phone rings. It's Alison and she's pregnant. A terrified Ben decides to face his responsibilities and be there for the girl, in the meanwhile he becomes friends with his 'brother-in-law' Pete (Paul Rudd), who feels so suffocated by his wife he feels the need to hide his need to have some 'me time', and later confesses to not feel worthy of his wife, and helps him and Alison's sister to work out the kinks in their marriage, faces the truth about the patheticness of his life and attitude and basically decides to start a new chapter in his life, especially after his behavior during an earthquake while Alison was sleeping at his.

And as the due date nears, Alison and Ben begin to seriously fall in love...

This is one of the cases where the hype is actually well deserved; the directing and the writing work on all levels with a surprising ability to go from the laugh-until-I-die to the moving and back again, and the cast is absolutely up to par, from the charismatic Heigl and endearing Rogen, to the more experienced Rudd and Mann, to the actors playing the circle of Ben's friends (one of which played one of the main characters in 'Superbad', or did he?).

Definitely a movie to get on DVD.

Knocked Up (Italian Title: Molto Incinta (Very Pregnant)): 9/10.

*The Broken SPOILERS Club*

It's the story of five gay friends, Dennis (Timothy Olyphant), the soft-spoken photographer and main character, Benji (a blond Zach Braff) a gym bunny, Patrick (Ben Weber), constantly grouchy, Cole (Dean Cain), the one with the Matinèe Idol good looks, and Howie (Matt McGrath), a psychiatry student who seems to have problems relating to people, as his relationship with Marshall (Justin Theroux) attests.

The friends also play baseball in the 'Broken Hearts', the absolute worst baseball team in the world, under the watchful eye of Jack (John Mahoney) and his lover, the Purple Guy (Robert Arce). Coincidentally, the 'Broken Hearts' is also the restaurant where the guys hang out the most and where some of them work.

One day, young 'newbie' Kevin (Andrew Keegan) enters the picture and big queen Taylor (Billy Porter) is dumped for 'a punctuation mark' by his boyfriend.

That is just the beginning of a season of change for each and everyone of the Broken Hearts Club's card-carrying members, including African-style living rooms, sad deaths, rushes to the hospital, lesbian sister and lover asking for brother's sperm to make a baby, 'therapy sessions', sex with supposedly straight movie stars and more...

It was finally refreshing to see a gay movie where they say 'Ok, they're here, they're gay, movin'on'... and touch on relationship with a realism Howie would be proud of.

Well, seeing who the director and writer is I shouldn't be surprised, but Everwood's Greg Berlanti managed to do exactly that.

He also is aided by a very good cast and crew, who make 'The Broken Hearts Club' a heartwarming flick that can speak to any man, whether gay or straight.

The Broken Hearts Club: 9/10.