The Nightmare Before Christmas

Danny Elfman, Catherine O'Hara, William Hickey, Glenn Shadix

Directed by Henry Selick

Rating: A

Jack Skellington (Elfman) is tired of being the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town. In fact, he's tired of the same tricks and same scares every Halloween. After celebrating Halloween one night, Jack goes on a walk with his dog, Zero, and stumbles upon a door with a Christmas tree on it. Curious, he goes through the door and finds himself in the wonderful land of Christmas Town. Enchanted by the snow, joy, and presents, Jack wants to bring Christmas to Halloween Town. Jack goes about and gives a task to each person to make toys or work on Christmas good. Sally (O'Hara) has a bad feeling about this because it's not natural for Halloween Town to do this. She tries to warn Jack but he simply won't listen.

The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of the best Halloween movies to watch around this time of year. Tim Burton, the writer for this movie, did us all a favor by making this movie. The best part about this movie is that it can be watched in any decade. Even now in 2011, it is still a great movie to watch around Halloween. The characters are all interesting, from Jack as a skeleton to Sally with all her body parts sewed together to the Mayor with two faces.

This is a classic Halloween movie for any ages and I highly encourage watching it around Halloween time. Christmas works too as that is involved with the movie! It's not too scary so even young kids (of perhaps six and older) can watch this without being too scared.

Casper

Bill Pullman, Christina Ricci, Malachi Pearson

Directed by Brad Silberling

Rating: C

Casper (Pearson) is just a friendly ghost stuck haunting a house with his three uncles Stretch, Fatso, and Stinkie. However, Carrigan finds out that after her father has passed away a treasure is hidden in the house that he left her. Unfortunately she can't get to the treasure do to Casper's mischievous uncles so she hires Dr. Harvey (Pullman), a ghost therapist, to help these ghosts with their unfinished business and move on. Dr. Harvey's daughter Kat (Ricci) befriends Casper and helps him deal with Carrigan.

Casper has the potential to be a good movie but the general audience to want to see this film again is probably under ten. At first the film captures your attention but then after Dr. Harvey and his daughter move into the house to deal with these ghosts, the movie starts to falter. Dr. Harvey tries to help the three rude ghosts move on but instead gets pulled into their schemes. Kat allows her whole class throw a Halloween party at her house on her first day of school which is totally unrealistic.

The plot has a way of quickly being resolved and the ending leaves you unsatisfied, thinking, "that's it?" Apparently each Casper movie following this first one gets just as bad a rating. This film was rated 5.7/10 while the next two receive 4/10. You would hope that Casper would be a great choice to watch Halloween night but you're better off watching The Nightmare Before Christmas or Halloween Town.

Good Will Hunting

Matt Damon, Stellan Skarsgard, Robin Williams, Ben Affleck
Directed by Gus Van Sant

Rating: B

Will Hunting (Matt Damon) is an exceptionally smart person. However, he spends his time as a janitor at MIT in Massachusetts. When Professor Lambeau (Skarsgard) asks his students who can solve a particularly difficult problem that could earn them an award, Will solves it on a blackboard in a hallway. The professor is impressed and when his students admit none of them solved it, he goes to find out who did. When Will is found out for his intelligence, Professor Lambeau seeks to help him see his true potential. However, Will has some issues and finds himself at court quite a few times. This is when Sean Maguire (Williams) comes in, as he has a similar background to Will's and as his psychologist can connect with him.

Will has a hard time letting people into his life. Growing up, he moved around foster homes where some of the foster fathers were abusive to him. Will meets a girl but eventually pushes her away, all because he wants to avoid being abandoned by someone he cares about. Sean can see himself in Will and helps make a bond with this unconnected young man. Will learns to trust Sean and finally see's the his own potential.

Good Will Hunting is a movie worth seeing. Matt Damon portrays a believable character and one that the audience can sympathize with. Viewers want to see Will have a happy ending because in the end he deserves it. This was an interesting film to watch because Will has two choices: live life on the high end with a job that pays very well or he can do what makes him happy. It's a hard choice to make when you can potentially earn a six-figure salary but with the help of his psychologist, Will learns to do what is right for him.

Fried Green Tomatoes

Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy, Mary Stuart Masterson, Mary-Louise Parker

Directed by Jon Avnet

Rating: B

Finally having her son growing up to leave home, Evelyn Couch (Bates) has a void to fill. Her husband, Ed (Gailard Sartain) doesn't appreciate the time they have together, preferring to eat dinner in front of the tv than talk to her. During a visit to see Ed's aunt in a nursing home, Evelyn meets Ninny Threadgoode (Tandy). Ninny starts to tell Evelyn a story about a strong, independent woman she knew growing up but doesn't get to finish because Ed was ready to go home. Evelyn comes back to visit Ninny and hear more about Idgie (Masterson) and Ruth (Parker), two best friends who have survived an abusive husband and some attacks by the Ku Klux Klan.

Fried Green Tomatoes is really just a sweet story about friendship and loyalty. The movie goes in and out between Ninny's story and Evelyn's growth of independence. Through Ninny's story about Idgie, Evelyn is inspired to change what she doesn't like about herself and to fix her marriage. Evelyn struggles with aging and gaining weight and after trying out some support groups, the best support she can get is from Ninny. Soon, Ninny becomes like family to her.

What I really liked about this movie was how Ninny takes you back to the 1920's Alabama. You get to hear about a different time and different people. Idgie is a tough girl who has preferred to be on her own since her older brother died. Ruth comes back to town and tries to reach out to her, not giving up until one day they are able to make a connection. Their friendship grows (while apparently in the novel they are actually "lovers") and they take care of each other. In the end, something tears them apart but the movie doesn't end unhappily. I would recommend this if you enjoy sentimental, inspirational, and heart-warming movies of the kind.

Zoolander

Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell, Christine Taylor

Directed by Ben Stiller

Rating: C

Derek Zoolander (Stiller) is a model and famous for his look "Blue Steel". Mugatu (Ferrell) is looking for the perfect dumbest model for his plans to assassinate the Malaysian prime minister who is trying to outlaw child labor laws. A snoopy reporter (Taylor) tries to help Derek from becoming Mugatu's next victim.

Zoolander is one of the better comedies of the 2000's. While maybe not a laugh-out-loud film of the year, it's enjoyable and Stiller is the best part of the movie. Zoolander is an over-exaggerated look at how models are conceited and have no brain cells but it pokes fun at them in harmless way. The movie isn't predictable because there's not too many modeling movies out there. This movie isn't Ferrell's shining glory but he does a good job at portraying an evil clothes designer.

Overall, Zoolander ranks itself among the movies like Dodgeball. It's a fun film to watch and maybe worth buying to watch every once and a while. For those fans of Alexander Skarsgaard from the hit HBO show "TrueBlood" should be excited for the small role he has in this movie.

A Clockwork Orange

Malcom McDowell, Michael Bates, Patrick Magee

Directed by Stanley Kubrick

Rating: C

Alex (McDowell) is a young, rampant, violent, sex machine. He and his group of "brothers" go about stealing, fighting, and raping about in England until one day they don't want Alex as the leader and leave him to be picked up by the police. After murdering a woman, Alex is charged with a fourteen year prison sentence. After two years of good behavior, he convinces the governor to be picked for a new experimental treatment that cures bad men of their habits to never doing a bad thing again. After two weeks of a sickening process, Alex can't stand violence or sex or even Beethoven's "Ninth Symphony", driving him mad. Alex is the government's pawn in leading England free of crime.

A Clockwork Orange is a disturbing movie that crawls under your skin. It's intentions are to make the audience uncomfortable right from the first scene. Alex stares at the camera for a lengthy time; that's the only thing viewers see. The camera zooms out to reveal a room that Alex and his friends are sitting in, white plastic models of naked girls in uncomfortable positions leave watchers feel like averting their eyes. While Alex goes through a reformation process he is still slightly disturbed, retching and making belching noises when confronted with violence or sex.

Alex is a hard character for viewers to sympathize with. After seeing what he's done with his life, even after he has been "reformed", viewers don't feel so sorry for Alex. The audience may still think he may not have gotten what he deserved for all the wrong he has done. True, viewers might feel bad when his parents don't let him come live back in their house, but besides that, Alex is an unsympathetic character.

This is a movie that is loved or hated between many viewers. I think it deserves a "C" rating because on the whole, it's a very disturbing movie. I've always wanted to see it just because the name pops up every now and then but this is a movie you rarely watch. I would recommend this movie to those who are okay with uncomfortable movies, like The Black Swan or Trainspotting. While viewers may ponder if the main character, Alex, will ever be okay, the real question is, was he ever okay to begin with?