OZARK'S TOP 250 MOVIES: #50-#41

#50 - Psycho (1960)
A slasher flick that inspired so many over the years. Anthony Perkins is psycho mother's boy Norman Bates and the film is tauntly directed by the master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock.

#49 - The Machinist (2004)
A dark and deeply chilling psychological thriller. Christian Bale dropped his weight down to 120lbs for the role of Trevor Reznik, an industrial worker who is beggining to question his sanity after not being able to sleep for a year.

#48 - Raging Bull (1980)
Scorsese directs Robert De Niro as boxer Jake La Motta in this excellent biopic. De Niro puts in a powerhouse performance which is almost outshone by Joe Pesci as La Motta's foul mouthed brother.

#47 - Schindler's List (1993)
Shot almost entirely in black and white this is a powerful true story of one man's attempt to save Jews from execution during WWII. Oscar winning and worthy performances from Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley and Ralph Fiennes in his darkest role ever as the evil nazi Amon Goeth. Spielberg proving without a doubt he is a master of his craft.

#46 - Ghostbusters (1984)
One of the funniest movies to come out of the 80s. This movie showcases actors at their comedic peaks, Akroyd, Murray and Ramis have never been funnier and most likely never will. A fantastic script and great special effects even compared to what Hollywood turns out today.

#45 - Days of Being Wild (1991)
Wong Kar-Wei's stylistic romantic drama set in 60s tells the tale of a man who discovers the ex-prostitute that raised is not his real mother and how he deals with the truth whilst getting the competiting attentions of two women.

#44 - Memento (2000)
A very clever use of storying telling as the plot unfolds in reverse. Guy Pearce is a man who suffers from short-term memory lost we follow him as his memories fall back together and his investigation into his wife's murder. Christopher Nolan created a new way of telling the story that brilliant and mind-bending.

#43 - Gladiator (2000)
Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe together reivigorate the period epic. Crowe's powerful presence makes for a larger than life character who will now be an iconic piece of modern cinema. And Scott succesfully recreates Rome bringing a real feel to the proceedings.

#42 - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
This movie rightfully swept the five major Academy Awards in it's year. Jack Nicholson produces another unforgettable character in RP MacMurphy, a violent man placed into a mental hospital he doesn't feel he belongs in.

#41 - Dead Man (1995)
Johnny Depp is a man named William Blake in Jim Jarmusch's offbeat western. This is different for any other western you will ever see, beautifully shot, hauntingly scored and incredibly acted by the ensemble cast lead by Depp.

X-MEN 3 - Teaser trailer news

The first teaser for X-Men 3 will be attached to King Kong in theaters but will also be available online at apple.com on Monday Dec 5th.. I will post the full link when it becomes available. One of the reporters at comingsoon.net managed to get a glimpse of it and says it does contain shots of Beast and Angel.

MOVIE NEWS - See Tom Run and natural progression

Picture of Tom chasing down Katie as she tries to escape.

Actually it is the first of several new pics from the set of Mission Impossible 3. For more exciting photos of Tom running and looking beat up goto: http://www.sky.com/showbiz/picture_gallery/0,,50004-1204407-1,00.html

I'm am seeing an interesting trend in stars of Lost and their choices of movie projects. It seems to be a natural progression to star in a horror movie remake after appearing on the show.

First we had Maggie Grace in The Fog - remake of the John Carpenter version.

Secondly Emilie De Ravin in The Hills Have Eyes - remake of Wes Craven's cult classic.

Next in line is Ian Somerhalder in Pulse - remake of Korean horror flick Kairo.

What next?? Josh Holloway is Rosemary's Baby....

TV NEWS - Lost, Prison Break, 24

Yep after this week's episode of Lost will go dark until the new year... I do feel the show has been feeling a little streched the last few episodes even the big concept episode about the tailies really didn't do much for me. We'll see how this week's big Kate episode, who is seriously in need of some screen time after being off for a few episodes, and what kind of big cliffhanger they will leave us with over the Xmas period.

Another show that finished up until next March is Prison Break. It has the a fall finale which was disappointing to say the least, the inmates started their escape and pretty ended stuck halfway through the plan. I was thinking we would see them escape... but no looks like we have to wait. At least it isn't until May. March won't be too far off....

Especially when 24 returns in January... I think it will begin on a Sunday evening again with a 2 hour episode followed by another 2 hour show on Monday night... Returning along with Jack Bauer (Keifer Sutherland) is President Logan (Gregory Itzin), head of CTU Bill Buchanan (James Morrison), and CTU regulars Curtis Manning (Roger Cross), Edgar Stiles (Louis Lombardi) and Chloe O'Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub). Also coming back again Tony Almeda (Carlos Bernard.. yay!!) and Audrey Raines (Kim Raver). On top of this new characters played by Sean Astin, Julian Sands, Peter Weller, JoBeth Williams and Jean Smart.... Weller's character is particularly exciting as he is the man who recuited Jack for counter-terrorism work... The clock is ticking.

UWE BOLL - Who is giving this man money????

I think Col Kurtz said it best with "The horror, the horror."

Yes Uwe Boll is well at it again. Sorry Dr Uwe Boll. The man seems to be on single handed mission to wipe out any credibility that movies based on video games have left in Hollywood if they had any to begin with.

He was the man who made House of the Dead. Which in the end seemed like a movie that had been made and then he grabbed the license to a game and slapped it on the titles. As the final product bears no resemblence with HOTD game except that it involves zombies and guns.

Then he destroyed Alone in the Dark, originally a creepy little game involving a private detective investigating goings on in a haunted house. Now it has been turned into an action horror with huge monsters. And sucking any talent out of Christian Slater and Stephen Dorff. Why would they work with this insane madman???

Have they also sold their souls to the devil.

In about a months time he will unleash Bloodrayne on the unsuspecting movie going public, sure to be another mess from what early word has escaped from the Austin Film Festival where it premiered.

Whats next??? See for yourself:

http://www.kinopremiery.cz/trailery/245/index.htm

Original just titled Dungeon Siege.. now it is called In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale in a obvious attempt to make it seem LOTR-esque. What the fuck is he thinking... medievil knights and farmers doing kung fu kicks and shit... a side note some how he has managed to hijacked the action director from House of Flying Daggers.. The action looks so out of place it is painful.

Ray Liotta looks like he has shown up for the wrong movie... Burt Reynolds looks hilarious in armor as the King... and Matthew Lilliard has a ridiculous goatee...

Boll plans to make this movie a 4 hour epic with it's release being split into two parts.. ala Tarantino's Kill Bill.

All this and he has four other movies in varying stages of production... Far Cry, Hunter: The Reckoning, Postal and Fear Effect....

God help us!

MOVIE REVIEW - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)

Director: Tim Burton
Starring: Johnny Depp, Freddie Highmore, Deep Roy, Helena Bonham Carter, James Fox, Christopher Lee

Based on Roald Dahl's novel comes Tim Burton's vision of the children's tale. The story remains the same with young Charlie Bucket (Highmore), along with other much more revolting children, wins a tour of the world's greatest chocolate factory, along with the chance to meet the maker of the most sublime candy, Mr Willy Wonka (Depp).

What is inside the factory is one of the most adventoutrous world that Burton has ever captivated on screen. The film exudes a feel-good vibe even during the more depressing moments. This is helped immensly by the zany performance from Depp whose Wonka is without the slightest concept of manners or anything to do with human behaviour. He is a recluse with deep need to be loved by a family and Depp shows this in his wonderous turn.

The musical numbers by the Oompa-Loompas are brilliant, much thanks for that goes to the vocal stylings of Deep Roy (in his role as ALL the oompas) and the musical talents of long time Burton cohort Danny Elfman, who also once again turns in a motion picture score which adds more character to the proceedings than most actors can.

Burton no longer broods, it seems with this film and Big Fish he has aged slightly and the world is wearing less on him than it was in the days of Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands. Instead of having a loner who just ends returning to the quiet recluse of not knowing anyone, the loner now wants to reach out and give the whole world a hug. And dammit we just want to hug back.

Willy Wonka we love you.

The Good: Storytelling art.
The Bad: Too much chocolare can make you sick.
The Ugly: Never touch the squirrel's nuts.

Overall: Burton comes of age. 9/10

MOVIE REVIEW - Bewitched (2005)

Director: Nora Ephron
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Will Ferrell, Shirley MacLaine, Michael Caine, Jason Scwartzman

Isabel Bigelow (Kidman) is a witch trying to be human. Jack Wyatt (Ferrell) is an egotistical burned out actor trying to revive his lagging career. The idea him and agent (Schwartzman) come up with is to remake the TV show Bewitched but make Darrin the main character and push Samantha to the background. So in his search for the perfect quiet Samantha he finds Isabel. So of course she now has to act as the person she is trying to escape from being whilst she begins to fall for Jack.

It is refreshing that they didn't go the straight rehash route and instead try to inject something different into the proceedings with the douuble life aspect of the story. For the most part the script is okay and no one else can handle the sappy heart-string pulling and comedy quite like Ephron.

Acting across the board is good. Kidman is strong and pretty subdued most of the time especially compared to Ferrell who obviously ad-libs alot of his comedic tirades. Caine and MacLaine are both a delight as always and later in the movie a short appearance from Steve Carell as an imaginary Uncle Arthur comes across as part hilarious and part annoying much like the Arthur from the original show. Almost like Michael Scott from the Office trying to do the impression.

Thinking about it if the movie had been made about 10 years ago it would have probably starred Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. Good? Bad? Average. Just don't expect too much from this romantic comedy and you'll find it enjoyable.

The Good: Ferrell and Kidman work well as a screen couple. Surprisingly.
The Bad: Just another romantic comedy.
The Ugly: Steve Carell? It's all a matter of taste.

Overall: Ephron-esque. 6/10