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This film rendition of the best-selling novel of the same name is an enjoyable love story, but lacks a certain emotional or intelligent oomph to lift it to a greater level. I enjoyed the film from start to finish and was completely engaged, but I never felt swept away by the subject or the love tale.

The film begins with the young girl, Chiyo (Suzuka Ohgo), being sold to a geisha house. She wants to escape, but is thwarted at every turn. Running the geisha house is Auntie (Tsai Chin, THE JOY LUCK CLUB) and the raspy-voiced, chain-smoking Mother (Kaori Momoi, KAGEMUSHA). Chiyo is special because she has brilliant blue eyes, making her an instant threat to the aging geisha Hatsimomo (Gong Li, RAISE THE RED LANTERN). Chiyo must endure though and eventually begins her training as a geisha with Mother’s rival Mameha (Michelle Yeoh, CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON). Taking the name Sayuri, Chiyo (now played by Ziyi Zhang, HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS) becomes the most popular geisha in Japan.

This Chevy Chase vehicle from the early ’80s is a total mess. The plot moves all over the place and a lack of a consistent tone leaves the film completely repulsive.

Max Fielder (Chase, FUNNY FARM) is an air traffic controller who is so paranoid about his girlfriend Darcy (Patti D’Arbanville, THE FAN) cheating on him that he bugs her. Early in the film she breaks up with him. Depressed Max tries to find comfort from his ex-wife Lorraine (Mary Kay Place, SILVER CITY), who ends up falling for Max’s high school friend Brian Stills (Brian Doyle-Murray, GROUNDHOG DAY), who has become a publisher for egotistical relationship guru Mark (Dabney Coleman, 9 TO 5). Brian’s personal assistant is Dorita (Nell Carter, TV’s GIMME A BREAK), who is into voodoo.

In 1990 when this film became one of the all time box office champions, I loved it. I was 14. I’m a bit older now and find the film so implausible that it was hard for me to be engaged with it as I was back then.

The premise has the McCallister family heading off to Paris for Christmas. Due to a power outage, they are running late and in the rush to make their flight they miscount and leave 8-year-old Kevin (Macaulay Culkin, SAVED!) behind. So many plot contrivances have to pile up to make this scenario work that the film lose a lot of credibility. However, when I put myself in the mind frame of Kevin, I was able to sit back and have fun.

The film is really an 8-year-old’s fantasy. Kevin not only is able to survive on his own, but through elaborate booby traps (that no eight year old could have constructed in the hour the film allows) thwarts two burglars named Harry Lime (Joe Pesci, GOODFELLAS) and Marv Merchants (Daniel Stern, CITY SLICKERS). Adding to the tension of the story is Kevin’s mother Kate’s desperate attempts to find help for her son and get a flight back home. Some of the film’s most satirical moments come when Kate (Catherine O’Hara, WAITING FOR GUFFMAN) hitches a ride with a polka band lead by Gus Polinski (John Candy, PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES).

The original GINGER SNAPS is arguably the best horror film of the new millennium so far. GINGER SNAPS 2: UNLEASHED was a solid sequel that continued the tale from the first film and took it into an interesting direction. The third film in the series is a huge departure and made me wonder if the franchise was dead. However, despite being an odd choice, the third film is still engaging and entertaining.

Outsider sisters Ginger (Katharine Isabelle, FREDDY VS. JASON) and Brigitte (Emily Perkins, PROZAC NATION) return, but they aren’t modern girls anymore. The story takes the characters and places them in 19th Century Canada. Their parents have died and they become lost in the woods. After Brigitte is injured, a mysterious Indian hunter (Nathaniel Arcand, ELEKTRA) leads them to an outpost where the inhabitants are very leery of strangers. This is because on a nightly basis the fort is attacked by werewolves.

This Technicolor extravaganza had six directors and began filming in the U.K. until the blitz of WWII forced the production to move to the States. Fans of Disney’s animated ALADDIN will find a lot of similarities in this film about the rightful heir of Bagdad whose advisor tricks him out of this throne as well as steals his true love.

The film begins with Prince Ahmed (John Justin, 1978’s THE BIG SLEEP) as a blind beggar on the street with his dog who is actually his faithful ally — the thief Abu (Sabu, BLACK NARCISSUS). Ahmad’s advisor Jaffar (Conrad Veidt, CASABLANCA) has come back to woo the Princess of Basara (June Duprez, THEY RAID BY NIGHT) away from her father the Sultan (Miles Malleson, PEEPING TOM). As the story progresses, we learn how the prince and Abu got in such a predicament.

When it comes to haunted house films, this one is one of the best. The story knows what scares people and plays on a lot of the common fears that people have as kids. The spooky tree, the strange doll, the monster in the closet are all examples of the film collecting and tapping into very relatable chills that many have firsthand experience with.

The Freeling family lives in a planned community in California. Steve (Craig T. Nelson, TV’s COACH) is the top realtor for the community. His wife Diane (JoBeth Williams, FEVER PITCH) is a stay-at-home mom for their three kids — teen Dana (Dominique Dunne), middle child Robbie (Oliver Robins, AIRPLANE II) and pre-schooler Carol Anne (Heather O’Rourke, POLTERGEIST II: THE OTHER SIDE).

Having seen two of his films, I’m quickly becoming a Mario Bava fan. Within genre films, he was able to skewer the rich with a keen eye for subtle satire and devious dread.

The plot of this film will read like a typical exploitation horror flick. A fashion house full of pretty models is plagued by a serial killer who slowly murders the women in gruesome and elaborate ways one by one. This film is considered one of the first to be labeled in giallo in Italy. Giallo is a sub-genre of thrillers that are highlighted by the elaborated deaths that take place in them. The word means “yellow” in Italian, which was the color of pulp thriller novels of the time.

The first victim Isabella (Francesca Ungaro) is strangled by the killer who looks like Darkman wearing the mask Tom Cruise wore in VANILLA SKY. Inspector Silvester (Thomas Reiner) is assigned the task of capturing the killer, who could be anyone associated with the fashion house. The key characters include fashion house director Max Marian (Cameron Mitchell, MY FAVORITE YEAR); fashion house owner Contessa Cristina Como (Eva Bartok); Isabella’s boyfriend Frank Sacalo (Dante DiPaolo, SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS); the model Nicole (Ariana Gorini), who is also secretly seeing Frank; model and Isabella’s roommate Peggy Peyton (Mary Arden, ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE); nervous model Greta (Lea Lander); mysterious model Tao-Li (Claude Dantes); Greta’s fiancée Marquis Richard Morell (Franco Ressel); sketchy clothing designer Cesar Losarre (Luciano Pigozzi); and pill-popping Marco (Massimo Righi).

As this film portrays him, Truman Capote was a complex man. He was two-faced, pretentious, manipulative, caring, sensitive, hypocritical and brilliant.

The central part of this film’s success is the stellar performance from Philip Seymour Hoffman (BOOGIE NIGHTS), who needs to be nominated for the Oscar for his performance. He creates a character who is brought down by his hubris and ego, despite the fact that in the process he accomplishes his greatest artistic triumph.

Though not nearly as flashy as Hoffman, Catherine Keener as Capote’s research assistant Nelle Harper Lee, who over the course of the film gains enormous fame herself for writing TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, is the heart of the film. As Capote’s friend, we see him through her eyes and still care for him despite all his jerkiness. The conversation they have at the movie premiere for MOCKINGBIRD is heartbreaking.

VIZ Media Llc. has announced a collection of fourth quarter anime releases that will make unique gift selections for the 2005 holiday season. These DVDs include exclusive box sets, the latest episodic volumes for ongoing series, as well as single DVD volumes for newly launched properties.

Following its agreement with Canadas Amberwood Ent. for the U.S. broadcast, video and merchandising rights to the animated series, THE SECRET WORLD OF BENJAMIN BEAR, PorchLight Ent. has launched its branding campaign for the preschool hero by signing a home entertainment deal with Genius Products Inc. The inaugural deal grants Genius exclusive DVD and video distribution rights in the U.S. for nine half-hour episodes. The series is already an international hit throughout Canada, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.