Reviews by Kyle Ellis

I had no interest in seeing "Cruella"...none at all. After all, I really hated the two previous live action films based on the "101 Dalmatians" series. But my daughter insisted I watch it with her, as she said it is a silly but really enjoyable film...and after seeing it I agree. But I would also add that it is very well written...and I loved some of the dialog. I was expecting to give it a 2 or 3 and end up now giving it a 9!

The story in no way involves Cruella trying to make coats out of puppies. Instead, it's a prequel in which you see what helped to create the evil and god-awful Cruella we've all come to love in the full length cartoon. I'd say more...but think it's just a film you see for yourself.

Overall, an amazingly well written and very entertaining film. My only complaint, and it's a minor one, is that the music is too much...too loud and distracting. But otherwise, it's a terrific and very entertaining film.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the very first animated film featured by Disney and one of the most charming. While it's a bit different from the original fairy tale, Walt Disney took this familiar classic and turned into a family film that is still talked about over 60 years later. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is such a charming film and is another example of beautiful animation and a terrific story that could charm it's way into your heart. I still enjoy watching this film to this day, who could love the seven dwarfs? They all were so funny to watch and are so memorable. They pretty much represent our moods, they're kinda like a mood ring that's put into one room, lol. But Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the perfect family film that is still holding up very well all these years.

Snow White is a lovely princess who one day is just traveling through the forest. She comes across a house where it's a total mess, she decides to clean it as a favor to those who are living there. It turns out that seven dwarfs live there and when they find her, they realize they got a good thing going here, a hot girl who'll clean for them. But not everything is happy, the evil wicked queen wants to be the fairest in the land and Snow White has just beat her by a land slide. So she disguises herself as a witch and offers Snow White an apple, she eats it, and dies. Now the queen's the hottest girl in town, but the dwarfs come up with a clever plan to get her true love, the prince, he must kill the queen and save Snow White so they could live happily ever after.

I'd say that's a nice summary, I try my best anyways. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is just one of the greatest Disney films ever made. It's such a charming film and is very much apart of our pop culture today and as far as films go, this is just a great one. I can't wait to show this to my kids one day, they'll probably laugh thinking how old this movie is that it's hand drawn, but I think that's what makes it so special. The voices, the songs, the animation, everything about Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was just beautiful. I highly recommend this, it's a great family film.

10/10

In THE ROSE, Bette Midler plays a character based on the life of Janis Joplin. This one of those rare movies where everything works perfectly. Although she is amazingly talented, I sometimes wonder if Bette herself ever looks back on this movie and wonders how she managed such an amazing portrayal, in the same way that an Olympic skater reviews the footage of a 10.0 performance and is stunned that every blade stroke really is picture perfect.

While the storyline is memorable, and the acting superb, music outshines everything else. This is a movie from 1979, a time when rock and roll was still considered a lifestyle, and big rock bands were treated with absolute god-like adoration. Music mattered. It was a vital part of peoples' lives, and in THE ROSE it reaches the heights of excellence that normally exist only in memories that have improved with age. In this case, the music sounds as vibrant, exciting, and fresh today as when the movie debuted.

Bette belts out these songs with soul and fiery passion. The only other contemporary singer I can imagine doing a similarly credible job is Melissa Etheridge.

Sissy Spacek won the Best Actress Oscar for Coal Miner's Daughter (1980), but in retrospect I'm sure a lot of people regret not having awarded it to Bette Midler. This was not only an amazing, high caliber performance, but one that the passage of time has not diminished. This is a stunning movie. My dream is to rent a movie theatre for an evening, invite 30 friends, and relive this great experience.

Movie theatres used to be bigger, and were aptly called "movie palaces". THE ROSE deserves to be seen in such a grand venue. In the rich pantheon of movie history, THE ROSE is true royalty.

Note added October 9, 2007: It has been over a year, and I have no indication if anyone has ever read this review. If you read it, even if you give it a thumbs down, please answer whether the review was useful to you or not. I just am so curious if anyone will EVER read it. Right now, I'm listening to the soundtrack. This movie is timeless.

I think it was Ebert who gave Stella four out of four stars but, other than his, I have never read a positive review of this sadly misunderstood drama about class divisions, love, and sacrifice (three themes most great romantic stories or films have in common).

Here the major theme is class division. Stella is a story from depression era America. That said, it was translated to the screen then in such a memorable fashion that this remake (if you ask a Stanwyck fan or two) was not exactly appreciated. Fans of the original never gave it a chance. Furthermore, this version of Stella was made in the 1990s, not exactly a time of great financial trouble in America (as the depression was).

Now is the time to remove the rosy-coloured glasses, in the midst of a new era of recession and poverty in America, and see that this powerful story still rings true, is as timely and relevant as ever, in its updated format.

Yes, class divide is the major theme here. Stella is among the working poor, single, with big dreams but little hope of realizing those dreams. She works in a bar, doesn't have much money, lives in a crummy apartment. You get the drift. In the morning, she doesn't really want to get out of bed. On her wall, pictures of movie stars she idolizes.

A man sees her dance at the bar. He's wealthy, educated, from one of those upper class families that has nothing in common with Stella's. His major concern is what ivy league college to attend, her's is how to pay the rent, how to be 'happy.' They have an affair. They like each other. Stella ends up pregnant. Stella tells the guy the news. His response? "How about an abortion?" She replies, "I just wanted a room full of balloons." He supplies the balloons, and the proposal, but she sees his heart is not in it, and has too much pride to accept. She sends him packing.

Her daughter is eventually torn between the two lifestyles--the love she has for her mom and the advantages and happiness and love held out to her by her wealthy father. Stella, alone and unloved, and not wanting her daughter to become as unhappy as her someday, makes the ultimate sacrifice. She gives up the only love and happiness she has ever known to ensure the happiness of her daughter, and perhaps live vicariously, and with hope, knowing that at least her daughter found something to live for.

Now, for the movie. Everything is right about it. Beautiful score, artful cinematography, great set design (contrast between the two lifestyles; the messy apt. and the decorated mansions), wonderful and heartfelt performances by the whole cast, with Bette Midler, in particular, Oscar-worthy.

This is a film which is much more significant and well-made than you've been led to believe.

Warning: Spoilers Big Business has always been a movie I love watching from time to time. I will say that Lily Tomlin and Bette Midler never let me down as they got into their completely ludicrous, wacky antics that pay tribute to the old slapstick humor without being too in your face. Bette Midler came out to be the strongest of the two this time though and her performance is again what makes a film. Her character(s) were just so lovable, and Bette Midler's yodel scene was my favorite scene of the movie.

One humongous personal problem I found with the movie, and practically this was the only thing wrong with the film, was I think they should have let more time in for the final meeting scene between all 4 of them. I mean, they finally find their twins, and then it has like 4 minutes for them to talk to each other and then goes off. Uh? They could have let us see more, you know? Anyway, I found Big Business to be good, and was just a nice, quaint film to watch indeed.

The First Wives Club is a great comedy movie about three middle-aged women who get dumped by there husbands for younger women. The angry wives, who were the ones who got there husbands where they are today, are of course very angry and set out a very successful and cunning plan to get revenge on there exes.

This movie features such a brilliant cast with the likes of the brilliant, Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton, Elizabeth Berkley, Sarah Jessica Parker and Stockard Channing all starring here.

The First Wives Club is a brilliant, fun, comedy movie which is just great all the way through. I'd definitely recommend this movie to anyone and I give it a 10/10.

'American Psycho' is NOT a slasher movie. It is a depiction, a fantasy if you will, of the life of modern man and his place in society.

Nothing is enough. Money, sex, social stature, there is always someone else who has more and everyone else expect from you to try harder for even more.

This movie is about eliminating competition the easy way. By killing your opponents. By eating your sexual partners. By destroying everyone around you.

'American Psycho' retains the balance between this psychotic state, a chilling thriller and a very funny movie.

The scenes that show Patrick playing music for his guests are absolutely hilarious, as he comments very seriously on records by artists such as Whitney Houston, Phil Collins and Huey Lewis & the News. The funny thing is that he chooses the most commercial or sold out records of these artists, to explain how much better they are compared to their previous, more artistic work. Another message of the state of the receivers of commercial art.

You can analyze 'American Psycho' for hours. It can be perceived both as a deep and a fun movie. Even if you don't like the story, you will love Christian Bale's excellent performance.

Enjoy.

10/10

Towards the end of World War II, the Nazis engage in efforts to win the war through means of invoking the paranormal. They attempt to open a "portal" for seven beings who are meant to invoke the apocalypse on Earth, but a U.S. Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense is on hand to stop them before they get too far. They do not stop them as quickly as they'd like, however, and the U.S. troops soon discover that a bizarre infant, part devil, part man, red, with horns and the demonic works, with a large right hand made of indestructible stone, has gotten through. They acquire the infant, we go forward in time to the late 20th Century, and most of the film concerns an adult Hellboy still working in conjunction with the U.S. government to help battle monsters and the paranormal.

Hellboy was a 10 out of 10 for me, but there are a number of criteria for any viewer to have such a high opinion of it. One, even though director Guillermo del Toro is a big fan of the Hellboy comic books and many comments have been made by him, comic creator Mike Mignola and others that the film is faithful to the books, they've also said they've changed it to suit the context of the film, so you have to not be a purist about source material to screen translations (or current screen instantiations). Two, you have to have a taste for fantasy where the creators are not very concerned with making the material coherent with or plausible in the actual world. Three, you have to enjoy your fantasy both very dark (on the horror side) and humorous/sarcastic at the same time. Four, you have to like an epic, sprawling feel to your fantasy. And Five, you have to not hate cgi creatures. I meet all of those criteria. How many you meet will likely determine how well you'll like Hellboy.

What worked best for me was the material that showed Hellboy, portrayed exquisitely by Ron Perlman, as just a regular guy cum sassy detective. Even though he's half demon, a large part of the comics, at least--and this is hinted at in the film, particularly in the climax--is a continual nature versus nurture "debate". He was raised by humans who were as normal as they could be, being government agents in a bureau dedicated to the paranormal. So he has a large number of human-like quirks, including a love of old music, beer, cats, pancakes, chili, and so on. He's also a cigar-smoking, smart-assed detective. Hellboy is at its best when it focuses on these characteristics.

But everything else works well, too. Hellboy has a monster-like counterpart, Abe Sapien (Doug Jones), and a "freak" love interest, Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), who are almost as fascinating as he is. The villain and neutral creatures (such as the "half-creature" with a speaking role towards the end) are just as captivating. There are also other characters providing enjoyable comic relief, most notably Tom Manning (Jeffrey Tambor). His adopted father, Professor Trevor "Broom" Bruttenholm (John Hurt) is intriguing. And newly recruited "caretaker" John Myers (Rupert Evans) shows promise, even if we do not get to spend much time with him here. Like many films of this type, I'd love to see all of these characters further explored in prequels, sequels and spinoffs. That's a good sign, because it shows that del Toro and fellow writers Mignola and Peter Briggs have successfully conveyed a world with "deep" characters who have extensive histories.

Also worth noting is the cinematography/lighting/production and set design, which is consistently beautiful, and ranges from the popular recent trend of more monochromatic textures (blue is the color of choice here), to the strong chiaroscuro of the comic books, to striking contrasts, such as a mostly monochromatic scene which is suddenly penetrated by a supersaturated red stream of blood. The sets are all engaging, from exteriors (one hilariously claimed to be in Newark, New Jersey) to interiors, urban to expansive countryside and even outer space environments.

As for effects, which are a large part of the film, I can't for the life of me imagine someone claiming that cgi looks "fake" compared to mechanicals, practicals, stop motion (ala Harryhausen), and so on after they see this film. For my money, these are some of the most impressive cgi creations yet, including some great cgi fight scenes.

Hellboy is captivating, suspenseful and humorous. It is well worth watching for anyone with a taste for fantasy.

Warning: Spoilers
This is one of those movies that is simple and yet has quite a bit of depth to it. In fact the depth when it comes to the social commentary in this is quite effective and yet entertaining to watch. This is one of my favorite John Carpenter film that really got my attention even when watching it as a kid. The societal study of covert factious regime is the main factor at it's core that drives this story. With deep messages on being blinded by the media, entertainment and what politicians has to say. All are manifestations created by aliens to subdue and control the human race. It's actually compelling. Sure it has the B movie vibe going for it and can be corny at times but the corniness actually makes this more of a fun ride. Instead of it being overly serious and dark, it's corny and yet ingenious. I also liked it's portrayal of how the poor are quicker to see things for they really are. While the rich and people with status only care about controlling others and taking advantage of people. And only does things when there is something in it for them. So I found it ironic when most of the aliens were people that work in the entertainment industry, media coverage and politics. The subtle parts when the characters get headaches when they see and hear the truth for a period of time to add to the satire. Even one of the scenes that show a long fight between two friends near a dumpster has a meaning to it. Because the main protagonist is trying with all his might for his friend to see the truth for what it really is. And how society lacks integrity and can easily be bribed for position of power and wealth. While succumbing to turning a blind eye to the truth in the process. So overall, this is a movie I would highly recommend to anyone that enjoys films in general and not just science fiction fans. Because before "The Matrix" there was this cult classic masterpiece.

10/10