My Favorite Movies

Epic retelling of the entire Wyatt Earp legend from the time he was boy in Mississppi to getting married, to losing his wife, to becoming a horse-stealing drunk in Arkansas, to his victories as the law of Dodge City, Kansas, to the famous gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, right up to his retirement in California.

While not quite as well directed as Tombstone, released by Disney just six months earlier (even though WB started on this way before Disney), director Lawrence Kasdan has done a masterful job of leading his audience through the life of Wyatt Earp. And that's what truly separates this film from Tombstone, which is good if you only want to know what happened Tombstone, Arizona in 1882. Whereas this film takes you on the whole life story the legend behind the famous gunfight. Both films are thus appropriately titled. It should be noted however, that neither film is entirely historically accurate, as both are told from Wyatt Earp's viewpoint and ignore the viewpoint of the cowboys, some of whom still have descendants living today.

Kevin Costner gives a performance as Wyatt Earp equal, yet different, to that of Kurt Russell's in Tombstone?the role actually suits him. Gene Hackman gives a brilliant performance as a character you can't find in Tombstone, Wyatt's father. Which brings us to Dennis Quaid's performance as Doc Holiday: though certainly brilliant in its own right, and Quaid should receive nothing but praise for it, it doesn't quite measure up quite as well as Val Kilmer's take of the same role in Tombstone.

All things considered this is a brilliant epic and must be taken and considered as such, and not your typical blockbuster. And despite falling just shy of Tombstone in overall quality and entertainment value, I still love watching this film and consider it a masterpiece of filmmaking.

Wolfgang Peterson did a superb job with this film adaptation of the first half of Michael Ende's novel. The magic of German storytelling has been well preserved in the transition from book to film. Filled with such memorable characters and perfect acting from adult and child actors alike, the ill-cast and poorly-written sequels don't hold a candle to Peterson's work. Barret Oliver is outstanding as Bastian. Noah Hathaway's performance as Atreyu is also superb. Tami Stronach makes the perfect childlike empress. Deep Roy, Alan Oppenheimer, Moses Gunn and Sydney Bromley also all play their characters with expertise.

Without a doubt the best Next Gen cast Trek Film. All performances, except for Marina Sirtis, whose character spent most of the movie drunk, were first rate. The guest appearances were especially excellent from Alfre Woodard to James Cromwell to Alice Krige. And it was spared the dubious pitfall of becoming "the Picard and Data story." Although, that being said, it did have some of Patrick Stewart's finest acting in all of Star Trek in it.

To me, this film ultimately started to break the cycle of even #'d movies being better than odd #'d movies. Okay, it may not have been quite as good as II, IV, VI, or VIII, but I found it to be very close. All the main characters were well enough involved.

Excellent adaptation of Carl Sagan's famous book. Jodie Foster gives one of her best performances.

Classic Original Star Wars--at least until Lucas tried to fix what wasn't broken 20 years after it was first released. This film, minus Lucas' 1997 enhancements is truly extraordinary and remains the backbone of the entire franchise.

Quite simply the best Star Wars film Lucas ever made. The performances are first rate and the story bears some deep insight into the nature of humanity. Superbly done.

Decent follow-up to Empire Strikes Back. I enjoyed it a lot and still consider the original 1983 version a true part of the Star Wars franchise.

First rate performances from Tom Cruise and especially Jack Nicholson in this Rob Reiner film.

"I want the TRUTH!!!"
"You can't handle the truth!!!"

Only Spielberg could make a movie about a boy and his alien into a masterpiece. Good performances all around, including Dee Wallace as the mom, Drew Barrymore as baby sister and Henry Thomas as Elliott.

Truly cinematic excellence for this Academy Award Best Picture Winner that won 3 out of 10 Oscars it was nominated for in 9 categories. It's got everything, Action, Drama, Comedy, Romance, all melded together into one solid cinematic presentation.


All the characters are very unique and real. Burgess Meredith is excellent as Mickey. Burt Young truly brings out the sad and tragic reality of Paulie. Talia Shire showed the perfect natural transition from almost a complete introvert to someone finally able to express her feelings to the man she loves.


Finally, hats off to Sylvester Stallone for not only doing an excellent job in the title role, but also for being able to write one of the best underdog stories in the history of motion pictures and the United States -- and what better place to set as a backdrop than Philadelphia.

Probably one of the, if not the, best Bond films ever made! Certainly it had inarguably had the best name for Bond Girl: Pussy Galore! Go Ian Fleming!

Awesome sci-fi action movie that pretty much set the stage for Schwarzenegger's blockbuster action career. Good performances by all.

Quite simply Schwarzenegger's best movie and among the best from Director James Cameron. The effects were top notch and ground-breaking.


It was cool to see the change in Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor from a naive ordinary girl in 1984 to a tough, no-crap woman in this 1991 feature, which had to have been set a couple of years later given the age of her son. Speaking of whom, then-newcomer Edward Furlong did an amazing job as a kid who has not had a typical upbringing in any sense of the word. He was tough and streetwise, but still not prepared for the reality of the Terminators.

Despite it's poor reviews elsewhere, I thoroughly enjoyed this film and can't make it through repeat viewings without cracking up.

Excellent first-time collaboration between director Tim Burton and Johnny Depp. The art direction with all the hair styles, dog makeovers and hedges was first rate.

Tim Burton and Johnny Depp at it again. This film should not be considered a remake of the Gene Wilder film, but rather a fresh new film based on Roald Dahl's classic children's novel; one that actually stays much truer to the book, both in spirit and in adaptation, than its predecessor. Although a large part of this is due to the fact movie FX allow them to pull off some of the scenes that would have been impossible in the previous version; scenes such as the nut-cracking squirrels, which were replaced by golden geese in the older version, or the scene with the chocolate palace which was left out of the other version. Of course, this film did also add some story points not in the book such as, Wonka's trip to the land of the Oompa Loompas and the whole backstory of Wonka's dentist father.


At the special request of Johnny Depp, British child actor Freddie Highmore (whom Depp worked with on Finding Neverland) was recruited to play Charlie, and proved to be the perfect choice. My first thoughts about Depp's performance was that he was a little over the top, however repeat viewings and DVD commentary, have now swayed me to believe that his performance was spot on.


I have not read the book since I was about 9 years old, seeing this movie transported me instantly back to when I did read it--all the characters and sets looked exactly how I remembered picturing them as I read it; especially Grandpa Joe. I think Dahl would have approved of this movie.

Richard Dreyfuss is at his best in this classic Spielberg sci-fi flick.

Amazing drama and serious role for Robin Williams. Truly showing that he is at his best when he's not trying to be funny every second. This film just had a great story and great acting all around.

Costner seems to thrive on period piece epics, giving one of his best performances here.

I practically hated this film when I first saw it, because it wasn't what I expected, but after being forced to watch it again I started to like it. Each time I see it, I like it even more--I get more out of it.

Probably my favourite of the franchise, not necessarily for it's story, or lack of a good one, but for the cars and the drifting technique. They make it look like a real artform and it's awesome to watch, especially the scene where Han drifts around the girl's car in the intersection.

To date, my favourite of the four. It's also the darkest.

Interesting commentary about reality TV, featuring the ultimate reality TV show about a man born and raised in front of a live 24-hour television audience completely unbeknownst to him. Excellent performances by Jim Carrey and Ed Harris alike.

A rather dark family feature with Jim Carrey as an evil uncle of two recently orphaned children and their baby sister who's trying to kill them to get his hands on their parents fortune. Carrey's performance is a little over the top, the performances of Liam Aiken and Emily Browning as the children were perfectly eerie. Jude Law narrates as author Lemony Snicket.

"The hills are alive with the sound of music..." Excellent musical based on the true life story of the Von Trapp family and their flee from Austria at the onset of WWII. Filled with songs that have endured the test of time.

A Rob Reiner classic based on Stephen King's novella, "The Body." Fine dramatic performances by all the young actors, particularly Wil Wheaton and especially River Phoenix, R.I.P. Richard Dreyfuss did a great job of narrating as well. But quite simply you just don't find too many movies that require this much from 12-year-olds, nor the 12-year-olds that can pull it off. Bravo!

Excellent submarine flick with Denzel Washington facing off against Gene Hackman over orders for nuclear war. Really examines the moral compass of people and examines naval nuclear procedure.

Amazing modern-day version of this classic Shakespere play. This film uses only Shakespere's words without adding anything or changing it to modern English, although they do shift some lines around and assign some lines to different characters.


That being said, I love the way they modernized it shooting in Mexico City, having them drive around futuristic cars, have the prince be the chief of police named Prince, and sporting sidearms with names such as 'dagger' and 'longsword' engraved on the barrells.


Leonardo Dicaprio was excellent as Romeo, while Claire Danes was perfect as Juliet. The final scene in the casket when Romeo takes the poison just as Juliet awakes was so beautifully directed. Top marks!!!

Excellent thriller starting Matt Damon as an apparent spy with amnesia. Damon does an excellent job in the role of Jason Bourne in this fresh-thinking realistic spy flick.

Pleasently surprised by this outstanding and magical telling of the J.M. Barrie's classic play. Jeremy Sumpter did an excellent job as the boy who never grew up, with the exception of his American accent when all the other lost boys were British and the story itself is British. Jason Isaacs also does a great job in the dual role of Mr. Darling and Captain Hook. Rachel Hurd-Wood is really quite good as Wendy Darling, while French actress Ludivine Sagnier is wonderfully expressive as a non-speaking Tinkerbell.

I have always loved this film as a true parody of the Hollywood action genre and for doing a fine job of breaking down the barriers of fiction v. reality. People who don't like this movie truly can't appreciate the brilliance of the sentiment inferred by my first sentence.

Fascinating story about using a shortwave radio to communicate across time and change past events. Intriguing concept and well told.

Based on the true story of the Stouffer brothers who took a summer and became filmmakers. The eldest brother, Marty is responsible for the highly acclaimed nature series of the same name. Middle brother Mark has worked on numerous animal documentaries and helped produce this movie. And youngest brother Marshal has done some camera work for a couple of animal documentaries.


This film stars Scott Bairstow, Devon Sawa, and Jonathan Taylor Thomas as Marty, Mark and Marshall respectively. All three actors do great job of bringing the story of these nature-filmmaker brotherly trio to life.

The second film to be made based on H.G. Wells timeless (no pun intended) classic about a man determined to see mankind's future. This version, like its 1960 counterpart is superb. This version also introduces an additional level to the central character: one of motive for inventing the time machine to begin with--a love interest he can't save from being killed. Excellent!

One of James Cameron's best films and Ed Harris' finest performances. Considering about 98% of this film takes place underwater, it is filmmaking genius. Cameron had to have a special radio system designed for the diving shots to make sure cast and crew remained on cue.

Truly outstanding makeup and set-design with an all-star cast that stays in line. Warren Beatty really is a good Dick Tracy. Dustin Hoffman is superbly unrecognizable as Mumbles. Madonna actually shows she can act when push comes to shove--and she certainly can sing--although she found it challenging to sing below her best for the scenes that demanded it. Overall the story was just good fun and entertaining.

Excellent fantasy story with Tom Cruise, Mia Sara and Tim Curry. One of Ridley Scott's underrated best--even if he did burn down the James Bond stage in the process. It's a wonderful tale of magic and purity -- of good vs. evil. Tim Curry is excellent as the Creature of Darkness. Watch for a classic performance by Robert Picardo as disgusting-looking swamp-troll-lady-thing.

Wonderful animated telling of the story of Moses staring Val Kilmer as the voices of both Moses and God. Other great voice talents abound. This film remains very true to the biblical telling of the Moses story and it is to be applauded for that. Being released through Dreamworks SKG, I think allowed them to delve a little deeper into the real story as given in the Bible than they would have been able to had the film been picked up by say Disney or one of the other major studios.

One of Arnold Schwarzenegger's best movies ever. He was great opposite Jamie Lee Curtis and throwing Tom Arnold in for comic relief was completely classic. Love the opening scene at the Swiss palace or whatever it was. Care to Tango?

Excellent satire about the proliferation of illegal arms in the world. No matter how vile and reprehensible we believe illegal arms dealers to be, we still appear to need them on some level we don't like to talk about. Also the opening sequence is awesome!

"On my signal, unleash hell!" Truly a Ridley Scott masterpiece. Russell Crowe was perfect choice for the title role, which demanded the right balance of brawn and tenderness. Joaquin Phoenix was perfectly and completely contemptible and hate-able as Commodus. Connie Nielson also managed her rather complex role caught up in the duality of love for her brother and support for what's right in a world far-removed from women's rights. Excellent!

Kind of an interesting end-of-the-world flick. A little more thought put into than most. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

The War expertly delivers the moral that fighting never solves anything.


Kevin Costner plays a Vietnam vet who lost everything, including his sanity and his best friend, because of the war.


Set in 1970, it has been several years and many jobs since he returned from Vietnam. Having spent time in a mental hospital due to waking dreams and nightmares, he can't get a government job.


Now he's trying to teach his son, Stu, the lesson about war that took him so long to learn. He also has to keep believing that anything is possible and that the government is not really the bad guy, even if it appears responsible for the family's economic situation.


Later in the film, Stu loses faith in what his father taught him. Together with his sister and their friends, they stage an elaborate war against some neighbouring kids over a treehouse. The insanity of the treehouse war gets to all of them until one of the kids almost dies.


The story is well written and directed towards sentimental audiences. About the only problem I have with this story is that it's told through Stu's sister, Lidia, as it's meant to be her memoirs, except she's not even in or around more than half the scenes in the movie. It is also interesting that this story is told from a child's point of view and the only adult character even remotely developed is Costner's.


Director Jon Avnet (Fried Green Tomatoes) has done a great job with camera shots during the war scenes and getting the adrenaline pumping during two death-defying scenes atop a water tower. His direction is also superb. I had a problem only with the flashback scenes to the war, during which I couldn't distinguish between Costner's voiceover (telling the story to his son) and his voice in the flashback itself.


Elijah Wood, best known for his work in The Good Son, delivers a superb performance. It's clear that this kid is definitely going places. He is, without question, the real star of The War.


Costner delivers a better performance than usual, and actually gets into character some of the time, but is still outshone by his co-star.


This review was originally published with my byline in The Ottawa Citizen in November 1994.

Not quite as good as the original of course, but still a fair outing, directed by Spielberg. This one sheds more light on Hammond's company InGen, and their own agenda for the second island.

Of course this wasn't as good as the original JP film, but although Spielberg didn't direct this film, I still tend to enjoy it more than the second one--perhaps due to it's less political story and more likable characters.

Interesting tale of a shock-jock whose on-air comments inspire a shoot-out in a bar. Enter Robin Williams who does a terrific job playing a bum whose wife was killed in the massacre, but has now found a new sense of joy in life and tries to pass it on to Jeff Bridges, now an alcoholic at the end of his rope. Fine performances by Williams and Bridges alike.

Tommy Lee Jones is perfect as the meanest player in the history of baseball. He really brings just the right comedic touch to what is otherwise a retched life of a man.

Powerful true story of a White South African boy who knows nothing but love for the blacks, but is living under the thumb of racial naziism pre-WWII. The film takes us through his own bullying as a child to living in a German prison camp during his adolescence to fighting for the rights of black South Africans, while in love with German Commandant's daughter in early manhood. Great performances by all, particularly Stephen Dorff and Morgan Freeman.

Interesting story of a crazy inventor who takes his family to the jungle and try to incorporate some civilization. Harrison Ford does quite the job of leading his family to the brink while sons Jadrien Steele and especially River Phoenix along with wife Helen Mirren do their best to try and ground him in the reality of their situation.

While the target audience of this film is elusive, with the two main stars both being under 10, but the story line leading to violent child abuse, the story is actually interesting as Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazzello (Jurassic Park) try to balance the joys of childhood with the reality of abuse, ultimately leading to Mazzello's character flying away in the end. An interesting mix of childhood fantasy and mixed with real life.

The River Wild opens with Meryl Streep, as Gail, preparing to take her son, Roarke, and their dog on a white-water rafting vacation. Her husband, Tom, hasn't made it to any family vacations for the past three years. And this year doesn't appear to be any exception.


When they get to the river, minus Tom, they first leave Roarke's younger sister with Gail's mother, and father. Gail's father is deaf, giving the family knowledge of sign language (essential in the rest of the film).


While fetching maps and passes for his mom, Roarke meets Wade and, from the first moment, finds him very cool. Wade is also heading down the same river with some of his pals.


Gail and Tom haven't been getting along, but Tom arrives in time to accompany his family--for the sake of their son.


As they head downriver they stay close to Wade and his pals. On the second morning, Wade tells them his guide and so-called pal, Frank, had abandoned them during the night. He asks if Gail, who had been a rafting guide as a youth on the same river, if she would help him and his other buddy, Terry, get down the river.


Gail and Tom begin to grow suspicious and try to sneak off with Roarke and their dog. They learn Wade and Terry are bank robbers who, after deflating their raft, tie Gail and Co. to their own raft.


As expected, they pass the normal stop for rafting tours and go down the most dangerous rapids, in which two people died and one was left paralyzed for life. Gail has done it before and that's why Wade wants her.


The River Wild starts off slowly with minor and somewhat disappointing suspenseful moments building slowly to the onslaught of suspense after Wade pulls a gun on Gail's husband.


To read a bit deeper into the film, the title doesn't just apply to the white water rafting, but also to the upside-down family life resulting because Tom has never been there as father or husband. Gail introduces Tom not as her husband but as Roarke's father. Gail and Tom's relationship is rekindled and Roarke goes from hating his dad to loving him.


This family bond gets sealed by a touching line from Roarke. Asked how his dad helped, he replies, "My Dad? He saved our lives."


Meryl Streep is very convincing as someone who knew what she was doing on a raft in strong rapids; Streep reported on Entertainment Tonight several months prior that she had no previous rafting experience.


As Tom, David Strathairn comes across well as a man tied to his work who turns into a man willing to do anything to save his family. Joseph Mazzello of Jurassic Park fame is excellent as Roarke.


Kevin Bacon (A Few Good Men) settles nicely into what is, as far as I know, his first bad-guy role.


John C. Reilly performs acceptably as the other bank robber, Terry.


Director Curtis Henderson chose shooting locations (three separate rivers in Montana and Oregon) exceptionally well. His camera angles make you feel you are there once the action starts.


This film is exceptional.


This review was originally published with my byline in The Ottawa Citizen in October 1994.

This film was really hard to watch as it was quite graphic. Normally I don't end up liking horror films based on biblical themes. But this film really drew me in and really displayed almost a higher sense than others like it.

SPOILER NOTE--SPOILERS BELOW

In the story, a mentally disturbed boy and his father are driving home from the institution the boy was just released from when their car breaks down at farm owned by the devil himself. While the father goes to work for the farm's owner until their car can be fixed, the boy with his childlike innocence (Jesus said, "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." -- Matt 18:3, KJV) knows there's something not right with their host.

Ultimately the film comes to the climax of the serpent once again tempting man to eat of the fruit of the tree in the garden of eden. It comes down to whether the boy can keep his father from eating of the tree or if he himself will be led astray by the serpent.

This film, although a little gory and disturbing for my general tastes, nonetheless did a fine job of trying to maintain an essence of Christianity through its exploitation and twisting of Genesis and Revelation.

Cast performances were also good, particularly those of Lance Henricksen as the farmer/serpent/devil and Adam Taylor Gordon as the boy, Sam. Their final battle of wits and words (before their physical battle of violence) was shockingly powerful and extremely well acted by both.

If you can stomach it, it can be worth a look. I've rated it 4.5, mainly because it exceeded all expectations and proved to be quite watchable for a horror movie. Good performances, writing and directing also helped.

Pretty good comic strip character movie, this one about a superhero who's blind and has learn to see better with his ears than he ever did with his eyes.

Director JJ Abrams had a very narrow line to walk in creating the latest Star Trek Feature. His challenge was to appeal to brand new audience who had previously anywhere from a passing interest to no interest whatsoever in Star Trek, while at the same time, not alienating the vast and diverse existing fanbase.

For this fan, I'd say he managed to perform quite admiralbly. Not to say that I don't have any qualms about his first venture into the Trek universe, but I feel that he really took the time to make a film that would be respectful of what had come before it. In fact, I'd even say that he tended to be even more respectful of the ST Universe than directors of a few of the previous films.

I'm not one who's much for gratuitous nonsensical violent action scenes that drag on and on and on while doing little to advance the storyline (this by the way was a major issue for me in the previous ST film), but I think Abrams managed to get in just the right amount of action, and it *was* all essential to advancing the plot. I personally would have liked to see a tad more intellectualism expressed in the film, however, they might have feared that that wouldn't fill seats.

For the Trek Canon loyalists, Canon was essentially maintained with only one glaring exception: the absence of Kirk's *older* brother, George Samuel. Although Memory Alpha notes that he was in originally supposed to be there, and even his scenes were shot, however, prior to the film's release, his character was eliminated.

Overall, I was fairly impressed with the film and feel it did its best to remain true to Roddenberry's vision, while still gaining blockbuster glory.

One of the best "Time" movies ever made. Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd were perfectly cast.

While not the best (or even second best) story of the trilogy, this entry was still enjoyable for me. Of course, they did a lot of the jokes simply because of the time settings, nearly all of which were predictable. But this film still remains an essential part of the trilogy. It links the 1st to the 3rd. It also has the most amount of time travel and time-travel technobabble, which may throw some people off, simply because they're being asked to think instead of being able to sit back and enjoy.

Good, fresh follow-up to round-out the trilogy. The Western theme was definitely the way to go.

You can never top the first Superman by Richard Donner and no one can ever replace Christopher Reeve -- R.I.P.

Tim Burton's first of two Batman films and what can I say but when you throw in a villain like Jack Nicholson as the Joker facing up against Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne/Batman. While probably not quite as obscurely told as most of Burton's films, it definitely still has the Tim Burton Feel to it.

Tim Burton's second Batman flick is just as good as his first but for different reasons. Danny DeVito made the perfect Penguin and Michelle Pfeiffer makes a great Catwoman--Meowwww. Also throw in Christopher Walken as a human villain, some good writing and Tim Burton's flair for the art of grotesqueness and you've got a great addition to the Batman movie franchise.

Brit star Christian Bale dons the black mask in this new take on the caped crusader. While this Batman proves to be quite different from the one set by Tim Burton in 1989, it is still a really good take on this comic book hero.

As a Canadian, I found the satire of this movie hilarious. This was Michael Moore at his best before he developed his own brand of documentaries.


It was fun to see John Candy, a Canadian actor playing an American cop and hyping on all the stereotypes Americans have about Canadians!


The best scene when Dan Aykroyd as an O.P.P. officer pulls them over because the graffiti on their stolen truck isn't bilingual! LOL

Stupid and corny Adam Sandler movie with a touch of charm.

Excellent commentary on the diamond smuggling business in African nations such as Sierra Leone. Leonardo DiCaprio does an ample job as a smuggler who's bloody conscience has about caught up with him. My one small issue was that IMHO he had hard time maintaining his South African accent--I could here his American slipping in every now and then.

Outstanding telling of this great American legend. First rate acting, particularly from Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp, and especially from Val Kilmer as Doc Holiday. Masterfully directed by George P. Cosmatos.

In just his second time working both in front of and behind the camera, Gibson scores a perfect movie. A true story epic based on the legend of Sir William Wallace who died a martyr for his beloved Scotland, becoming the catalyst to gain freedom from the British.

Russell Crowe does an amazing job as John Nash, the real-life university professor who received the Nobel-Prize after a lifetime of living with and teaching with schizophrenia. Excellent directing by Ron Howard.