Frequently called the greatest movie ever made, 1941's CITIZEN KANE is amazing to watch nearly 80 years after it was created. It's startling how great 24-year-old Orson Welles is as the triple threat Director/Writer and star. The world had never seen a film structured like this. The film opens at the end, then spins back a bit, then to the beginning, then back and forth in time until it brilliantly finds its way back to the conclusion. We first meet an elderly Charles Foster Kane, living in an immense house, apparently alone and gasping his final word "Rosebud" as both his life and a snow globe slip out of his hands. The estate is mobbed with reporters, one of which becomes our navigator through Kane's complicated, entitled, amazing life. Emerging as one of America's most powerful men, Kane becomes a publishing tycoon. Power, control, corruption and vanity are all key players in a fascinating story. Joseph Cotton (The Third Man, Soylent Green) is Jedediah, as close a friend as Kane will allow. Dorothy Comingore is terrific as Kane's second wife, wannabe opera singer Susan. She wants to sing, he builds her an opera house. The story behind the film is as amazing as the movie itself. Welles (24 at the time!) was given complete carte blanche and a solid budget to create his vision. He took his famed radio Mercury Players troupe and brought his vision to life. But real life publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst, fearing that the story of Kane was really an unauthorized biography of his own life, used all his power to destroy the film, Welles and anyone in it. He branded players communists, feeding the McCarthy hearings. He intimidated the industry and tried to make the film go away. Years later, film buffs will recognize the very first use of camera tricks, tracking shots, forced perspective sets...its a clinic on modern film making. Welles and Director of Photography Gregg Toland (The Grapes of Wrath, The Best Years of Our Lives) created techniques on the fly that are still used today! There's one scene where Kane is in his massive home and walks from the foreground to the background, where you realize the window you thought was normal size is massive, dwarfing and imprisoning Kane in his own home. Future director Robert Wise (The Sound of Music, West Side Story, The Andromeda Strain) was Welles editor and composer Bernard Herrmann (Psycho, Taxi Driver) wrote the score. At its center is Welles, creating his most amazing film his first time out. Named America's greatest film by the American Film Institute and countless others, CITIZEN KANE is legendary and still packs a dramatic punch. It gets an A+ and lands firmly in my Top 100 films of all time. Look for the 2 hour documentary "The Battle over Citizen Kane" detailing Hearst's personal war to destroy the film and Welles. It's amazing to watch the film's themes of power, vanity and corruption envelope the film itself.

If you're on Facebook, you've already cast your vote for a life shared online and all the riches that can bring. For a glimpse at the darker side of our social network check out the clever new drama/thriller THE CIRCLE. Emma Watson (Harry Potter) is Mae, a young woman with a dead-end job, a bad car and a longing to escape her small town existence. When her good friend Annie (Karen Gillan of "Guardians of the Galaxy") sets up an interview for Mae at a HUGE Apple/Facebook style company called The Circle, Mae leaps at a new life. Sprawling, massive, modern and not so subtly resembling The Pentagon dropped into the San Francisco bay, The Circle is Facebook on steroids, looking to be part of every facet of your life. Its charismatic leader Bailey stands up Steve Jobs-style and gives talks every Friday in front of young, admiring mobs about how the Circle will make your life better by being all knowing. If you need a charismatic leader, Tom Hanks is your man and he is at his best here as a visionary with a dark side. Mae goes from inspired to questioning and then much deeper, in ways that I didn't anticipate. She's an intelligent, resourceful young woman with incredible vision. How her slice of the Circle effects her parents (well played by Glenne Headley and the late Bill Paxton) and those around her is fascinating and unpredictable. John Boyega (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) is very good in a critical role, but Patton Oswalt, who I normally like a lot, is just OK as Bailey's co-founder of The Circle. When you think you've found holes in the plot, you might be surprised that The Circle is way ahead of you. I'm an early adopter of technology and thrive on what's new and what can make life more efficient, so I see the film as a fun thriller with a solid message about freedom, individual rights and privacy. But conspiracy lovers will be screaming at me that its an accurate view of tomorrow, with George Orwellian references to the end times and Skynet. But hey, they probably aren't on Facebook to read this anyway! Watson and Hanks are both terrific and THE CIRCLE is an entertaining tale, filled with great visuals showing a tech-world that's probably right around the corner. If you don't cringe a bit in some of the cult like slogans that Hanks and team spout like "Knowing is Good. Knowing everything is Better" you aren't paying attention... The Circle gets a surprising B.

One of my top 10 books of all time, John irving's stirring THE CIDER HOUSE RULES was adapted for the screen by the author himself, winning an Oscar for best screenplay. It's a beautiful film, capturing the core of the story, but I still recommend any readers out there grab a copy of Irving's novel and dig in. Along with Irving's "The Hotel New Hampshire" they are books you dont want to end. Tobey Maguire is Homer, raised in an Orphanage run by Dr. Wilbur Larch, embodied to perfection by Michael Caine in his Academy Award winning role. The film takes its time introducing you to the World War II era and everyday life at the medical clinic/orphanage. You meet the many children, see their routines and their eternal hope of being chosen by visiting couples. Dr Larch has given Homer complete medical training, making him a talented (albeit unlicensed) young doctor. Larch is also the only available doctor for abortions in Maine. Homer struggles with assisting in the procedures, wrestling with the morality of the services. When a young unmarried couple arrive, they change everything. Wally (when was Paul Rudd THIS young?) is an air force pilot on leave with his girl Candy, well played by Charlize Theron in one of her first roles. Wally's family owns a massive apple farm and Homer jumps at the chance to join them when they leave, his hunger to see more of the world driving him to leave Larch and the children for new adventures. Irving delivers on that adventure, delivering Homer into a new job as an apple picker within a whole new circle of friends and co-workers. Delroy Lindo is excellent as Mr. Rose, the good-natured leader of the crew that comes back every season to work the crop. Singer Erykah Badu made her dramatic film debut as Rose's daughter Rose Rose. If you're familiar with Irving, you know that he loves to build a family of characters that you care about and then weave in elements of death, love, heartbreak, dark secrets and discovery in the most unexpected ways. Kathy Baker (Picket Fences)and Jane Alexander (Kramer vs Kramer) are both strong in supporting roles as lifelong nurses in the clinic. Rachel Portman's music score is an all time favorite soundtrack and Swedish Director Lasse Hallstrom seems the ideal choice to bring Irving to life. Sitting comfortably with George Roy Hill's "The World According to Garp" as terrific adaptions of one of my favorite authors, Cider House is as terrific today as it was 20 years ago when it hit theatres. See if this opening narration sets the tone for you: "In other parts of the world, young men leave home and travel far and wide in search of a promising future. Their journeys are often fueled by dreams of triumphing over evil, finding a great love, or the hopes of fortunes easily made. Here in St. Cloud's not even the decision to get off the train is easily made, for it requires an earlier, more difficult decision - add a child to your life, or leave one ..." Writing, acting and film making doesn't get much better than this. THE CIDER HOUSE RULES gets an A+. Look for Irving in a brief cameo as the Train Stationmaster at the end of the film.

Looking for a fast, fun flick? CHRONICLE fills the bill! Three high school friends, Dane DeHaan (True Blood, In Treatment), Alex Russell and Michael B Jordan find something strange in the woods. It gives them minor superpowers that become MAJOR superpowers quickly. As they learn to play with their new abilities, the film is really fun AND funny. But soon, the powers grow much more sinister for those unable to control them. What would you do if you could fly? Get ready to really enjoy these guys doing EXACTLY what you would do! Surprisingly strong acting, special effects and fun & suspense make CHRONICLE a winner and a B for us.

As much as I love all things Christmas, someone needs to tell me what I am missing when it comes to 1983's A CHRISTMAS STORY. Based in the 1940's in Cleveland (poor Cleveland, first the Browns and now this) the tale is an old fashioned yarn about Ralphie (Peter Billingsley, the best thing in the movie) and his desire for a Red Ryder BB gun. His Dad (Darren McGavin, making his future Kolchak portrayal seem subtle) and his Mom (Melinda Dillon, whiny and annoying) are not behind the idea. His Dad is too busy battling the furnace repeatedly and loving his new leg lamp to notice much and his Mom just thinks he'll put his eye out. Ralphie and his friends battle bullies at school and he constantly day dreams of saving the day with his fully loaded Red Ryder. I am missing something. I didn't laugh, it didn't make me feel especially holiday-ish and I found the repeated sped-up Benny Hill antics boring. The whole thing just plays like a bad Garrison Keillor radio play brought to life. If I had a dollar for every time I looked at my watch, I'd have more than enough to recover my rental fee. I know a lot of people love it, but man it just doesnt click with my sense of humor. Maybe I just have a problem with Director Bob Clark. His other huge film hit was "Porky's" in 1981 and I hated that movie, walking out after about a half hour when it was in theatres, something I've only done maybe five times in my life. SO I guess I'll just leave this one wrapped up and ready for all the fans out there to soak up every year. I'll stick with Christmas Vacation, Love Actually and Elf as modern holiday classics. For me, this is dumb, annoyingly boring and gets a bah humbug, coal in its stocking and a D.

In 2009, filmmaker Robert Zemeckis brought his unique animated motion capture style to a new version of Dickens A CHRISTMAS CAROL that is full of visual treasures, but little else. Zemeckis uses the same animation style that worked so perfectly in "The Polar Express" five years before. If anything, the rough edges of the technique are more polished and realistic than in the earlier film. So what went wrong? The film is mostly faithful to the Dickens book, even in its old world dialogue, but takes some very strange diversions, including a long head scratching sequence in which Scrooge is shrunk to mouse size and rambles through the sewers of London. It's a shameless sequence to show off the 3D effects and is out of touch with the scenes around it like some ham-handed "Honey I Shrunk the Scrooge" padding. Jim Carrey is a likeable actor and takes on multiple parts in the story. His Scrooge is the strongest. He is palpable in both his hate for the holiday and his ultimate redemption. Carrey also plays the three visiting ghosts and makes some choices that derail the film. His Ghost of Christmas present is a floating candle-like creature that's the most interesting of the three, but he adds some strange movement to the character that's an odd fit for the setting and speaks in a lilting voice that's hard to understand. His Ghost of Christmas present is excruciatingly unlikable, with a constant, long belly laugh that wears out its welcome after one minute. That makes the twenty minute middle of the film almost unbearable as the loud laughter goes on and on and on....and on......and on..... Once the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come arrives and Scrooge finds his Christmas Spirit, the film regains the snow covered ground beneath its feet and is truly enjoyable. Gary Oldman is great as both Bob Cratchett and Marley and Colin Firth is very good as Scrooge's nephew Fred. The visual effects are incredible and photo realistic throughout, although Zemeckis seems to be a bit too enamored of flying us around London at every opportunity. Alan Silverstri's music score fills the film and is a strong point. So what is A Christmas Carol? It's beautiful to look at, loud, VERY scary for kids, loyal to Dickens 80% of the time and horribly off track when it isn't, a 90 minute showcase for the best and worst of Jim Carrey and ultimately a major disappointment from a very good director. We'll give it a C and a bah humbug.

What do you get when you take one of the best horror writers of all time, Stephen King and hand one of his best selling novels to classic horror director John Carpenter (Halloween, Escape from New York, The Thing)? Well, we got 1983's CHRISTINE. Keith Gordon (Dressed to Kill) stars as nerdy high schooler Arnie Cunningham, target of all bullies and friends only with football star Dennis (John Stockwell). When Arnie finds an old wreck of a '57 Plymouth Fury in a hillbilly's yard, he buys it and takes it to a nearby garage, where he begins the greatest romance of his life, with the car. Christine has a few supernatural options installed, including the ability to regenerate herself from any damage, a thirst for revenge and an unending series of 50's songs from the radio that tend to fit the current action. Where the book kicked into action nearly immediately, the film takes a long time to get going and only truly kicks into gear when Christine's in her shiny red, new tail fin glory with a thirst for blood. The films cast is comprised of profane, nasty people, from the garage owner to Arnie's parents, to the creeps that torment Arnie, to Arnie himself as the car begins to change him into a very different person. Gordon is a quirky actor and never a favorite of mine. Here and in films like "Jaws 2", "Dressed to Kill" he plays so big its distracting, but he was damn likable as Rodney Dangerfield's son in "Back to School". Keith did become a GREAT director, including many episodes of "Dexter", "The Strain" and "Fargo". Harry Dean Stanton brings some much needed goodness to his role as a police detective and Alexandra Paul is all shoulder pads and goodness as Arnie's girlfriend that Christine is very unhappy with. Carpenter creates some very good action and suspense scenes during Christine's pursuit of her enemies and the final showdown is well staged, but he's hampered by Bill Phillips screenplay that repeats much of King's dialogue without ANY of his storytelling talents, leaving it flailing on screen as profane and awkward. The special effects are pretty good, the score by Carpenter is fine, but this is definitely one of Carpenter's weaker films. CHRISTINE never manages to fire on even half its cylinders and gets a C.

1979's THE CHINA SYNDROME is a terrific thriller with a somewhat dated message on the dangers of nuclear power. It's a message that played very well in 1979 when it hit theatres moments after the accident at Three Mile Island. Jane Fonda is Kimberly Wells, an attractive TV news reporter moving up the ladder on the back of well executed puff pieces on the local CA news. She's hungry to tackle real news stories and stumbles onto one when doing a special on alternative energy sources at the local nuclear power plant. While there with her renegade cameraman Richard (Michael Douglas), she witnesses a near catastrophe in the control room. From her viewpoint on a catwalk above, she watches plant supervisor Jack Godell (Jack Lemmon) scramble to within moments of exposing the nuclear core and rendering a large portion of California uninhabitable. When the plant and the station begin to show signs of burying the story, Kimberly and Richard find themselves spiraling down a rabbit hole of danger and conspiracy. The more the company says there is nothing to worry about the more Godell becomes concerned that there are serious safety issues just beneath the surface. Lemmon, Fonda and Douglas are all excellent and well cast in their roles. Watching Fonda face the late seventies sexism of her workplace is startling nearly 40 years later. Director James Bridges (Urban Cowboy) delivers a compelling, exciting thriller that gets a suspenseful B.

Lean, mean and hilariously dark, CHILD'S PLAY is an entertainingly fast remake of the original 80's horror classic. If you're going to reboot Chucky, here are some strong choices to make it work: Cast Mark Hamill as the voice of your murderous doll. A long way from Luke Skywalker here, Hamill has a blast swearing and singing his way through a bloody trail of victims. Cast Aubrey Plaza (Ingrid Goes West) as an overworked, unsuspecting Mom who buys Buddi for her latchkey son. She's believable and delivers jet black humor with style, giving a much better performance that the material requires. Drop the original story about the spirit of a serial killer inhabiting a doll and update it to 2020, with a frustrated programmer taking all the filters off the doll's programming. The fact that the same company services everything else from self-driving cars to your automated vacuum provides plenty of murder weapons from start to finish. Cast a good young actor, Gabriel Bateman (Lights Out) as Andy, so you grow to like him before his treasured little buddy goes on a Manson spree. Have Bear McCreary (Godzilla King of the Monsters) write a scary music score that manages to inject a little humor into the jump scares. And keep the whole film to a brisk 90 minutes, so there's either a laugh or a bloodbath every few minutes. I laughed quite a bit at that damn Buddy doll. The effects keep him moving well and Hamill switches deftly from sweet to damn creepy so often you dont know quite what to expect. It's R rated fun (if you like this sort of thing) and I defy you to not get freaked out by Hamill's rendition of a very twisted "Your Best Buddi" song. If I ever hear those opening notes, I'm running as fast as I can. CHILD'S PLAY gets a B.

If you haven't seen the intricate thrills of 2006's CHILDREN OF MEN, you are in for an intelligent and exciting surprise. Clive Owen is our everyman, scraping by in London in 2027. The world has turned ugly, with nearly every nation collapsing save Britain under the weight of constant terrorism, suicide bombers, and the criminalization of all immigration. The film's opening shot is a brilliant, uninterrupted tracking shot of Owen going for a morning coffee. Once inside, the masses are grieving as they watch the breaking news of the youngest person on the planet dying. The entire world has grown sterile, without a birth in nearly twenty years. A sudden near death experience startles Theo (Owen) just outside the coffee shop, beginning a non-stop adventure for him and the viewer. Theo is soon reunited his extremist ex, Julian (Julianne Moore) and reluctantly recruited to smuggle a young woman to the border. Kee, the young woman, is carrying a very important secret and the possible secret to a calmer world. As Theo and Kee near the border, the film grows more intense, featuring incredible action scenes of intimate violence along with battles on an epic scale. The scene in their car that starts with Moore and Owen popping a ping pong ball playfully back and forth and escalates into terror is so incredibly well shot that only upon multiple viewings do you realize the camera never stops moving, putting you dead center into the violence. Director Alfonzo Cuaron went on to direct "Gravity" and his talent with the camera is on full display here. The acting is superb. Michael Caine is terrific as Theo's secluded friend Jasper, an aging hippie and former political cartoonist with plenty left to say through words and actions. Owen has never been better. The final battle in the apartment building is one of the best first person action sequences ever shot. It's exhausting and you'll feel like you are right there with Theo and Kee. Emotional and action packed, CHILDREN OF MEN gets a smart & violent A.

Many years of cinema history have taught us that It's hard to adapt a Broadway musical to the screen. For every "West Side Story" there are five "Jersey Boys". It's a tough process to get right. In 2002, Director Rob Marshall nailed the transfer with CHICAGO. Re-framing the stage version brilliantly for the big screen, Marshall presents all the musical numbers as fantasies within the mind of murderess Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger at her best). After Roxie murders her lover and convinces her dim-bulb husband Amos (a fantastic John C. Reilly) to take the fall for her, she soon finds herself on murderer's row next to Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones in an Oscar winning performance). Through song and dance, we meet the prison matron Mama Morton (Queen Latifah), Bandleader Taye Diggs and Richard Gere in a winning role as Billy Flynn, the slickest lawyer in Chicago. Kander & Ebb's music and lyrics are smart, witty and as rapid fire as the tommy guns firing throughout. It's the musical for people that don't like musicals, and Zellweger and Zeta Jones are as good as it gets. By staging the songs as dream sequences, it avoids the "why are these people singing all of a sudden?" pains that most musicals encounter with modern audiences. Look for Chita Rivera and Christine Baranski in small but pivotal roles that they both kill. CHICAGO won six Oscars, for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (Zeta-Jones), Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Editing and Best Sound, all well deserved. "All That Jazz", "Cell Block Tango", "We Both Reached for the Gun", "Roxie", "Mr. Cellophane" and "Nowadays" are all great songs, and brilliantly visualized by Marshall and his team. To prove just how hard it is to adapt a musical, Marshall stumbled with his next two efforts, "Nine" which was flawed but very watchable and "Into The Woods" which I would compare to two hours of waterboarding. But in 2002, and arguably so far this century, CHICAGO stands as the best musical in decades. It gets an A.

Charles Bronson has always been a man of few words on screen, but he's rarely said as little dialogue as he did in 1972's rough edged Western, CHATO'S LAND. Brosnan stars as Chato, an Apache who kills a small town sheriff in self defense. Five minutes into the movie, he's been taunted and provoked into the murder and takes off on his trusty horse as the opening credits role. The next hour and a half is a Native American Rambo against all the men chasing him, picking them off one by one as the posse of lugheads continuously wanders into trap after trap. Its a great bunch of lugheads though. Jack Palance is the straight drama version of Curly in "City Slickers" as a Civil War Captain seeking justice with a fair eye. Ralph Waite (The Waltons) is the low life older brother to Richard Jordan (Logan's Run, Raise the Titanic) a truly revolting rapist, murderer and bad neighbor. Simon Oakland (Bullitt, The Night Stalker) is their eldest brother Jubell, blinded by revenge in his quest for Chato. Richard Basehart (Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea) and James Whitmore (Give 'Em Hell Harry) bring strong character work to the posse as well. Director Michael Winner (Death Wish, The Mechanic) has no filter in showing the strong PG-13 rape and vile attacks on Chato's wife by Jordan and the gang. Just as he did in "Death Wish" the following year, he portrays the graphic violence setting up Brosnan as a ruthless killing machine. It's pretty distasteful and just about derails the film, as does the clumsy camerawork by Robert Paynter, who seems thrilled by constantly zooming WAY in and WAY out from key parts of the action. It must have been his new camera trick in 1972, but he'd go on to do MUCH better work in "American Werewolf in London". The pace is pretty slow, but Brosnan and the cast throw the whole thing on their dusty backs and keep you mildly interested. Director John Landis was a camera assistant on this film and has told legendary stories about the 6 plastic Saguaro cactus that they kept moving around on the set to make Spain look like the American Southwest. Watching the movie, I knew there was something bizarre about the cacti, but I couldn't place it. Makes more sense now! Chato's Land is an early entry in what would become Bronson's massive film stardom for 30 years. It's not one of his best, for that I'd point to "The Great Escape" or "Telefon". CHATO gets a C.