I will soon be reviewing the film "The Weather Man" starring Nicolas Cage. The reason I am delaying my review is that this film has provoked deep thought on certain subjects. I want to fully understand the films meaning before giving my full and final review. However I will say this: The trailer for "Weather Man" shows a feel-good comedy. This is the exact opposite of the real film. The real film deals with many intense and disturbing topics that will surprise you.

My review should be up by tomorrow.

IN OTHER NEWS

- Tonight is Halloween and I strongly urge you to go see "Saw II."

- John Malkovich is playing Lord Voldemort in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire!" How cool is that?

- 84 theaters in the US will be showing "Disney's Chicken Little" in 3-D. Three of these theaters can be found in Boston.

Both disturbing and terrifying, Saw II is a terrifically creepy psychological thriller that will leave you shaken even after the film ends. Though the film is played out by a group of no-name B-movie actors, the film delivers an edge of your seat horror film until the final line is uttered. The film's writing and directing styles went above and beyond my expectations. I also could not believe that a movie such as this could generate such strong emotions as it finds your own biggest fear and displays it on screen for you to experience along side the characters. This film should not be passed up, unless you are squeamish. If that is the case stay FAR away from this movie.

I did not see the first "Saw" film. Did you? How well did the second movie follow the first? Which was better? Let me know what you thought!

Saw 2 - I have not seen the first Saw, however this movie seems like a very well made psychological thriller.

The Weather Man - This looks like an excellent feel-good movie. Nicolas Cage rarely makes a bad film.

The Legend of Zorro - This is just my opinion, but taking an excellent action film and then making a PG rated sequel is not a good move. I loved the first one, but this one looks very childish compared to the first.

Prime - This looks like a funny film, however this seems as though it will be one of Meryl Streep's weakest performances.

Next Week: Disney's Chicken Little and Jarhead

Below are my picks for the top five BEST horror movies of all time.

5. Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho

4. The Exorcist

3. Child's Play

2. Nightmare on Elm Street

1. The Blair Witch Project

And in case you have friends who are afraid of everything and will refuse to watch any of the movies listed above, here are some non-scary, but absolutely hilarious Halloween related films

5. Frankenthumb - A Film from the makers of Bruce Almighty and Ace Ventura

4. Tim Burton's Beetlejuice

3. Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Wererabbit

2. Scary Movie 3 : This was by far the best of the Scary Movie films.

1. Saturday Night Live: The Best of Adam Sandler: The sketch in which Adam talks about his "creative" Halloween costume ideas is just hilarious. "I'm Crazy Newspaper Unicorn Man!"

And just for your information here are (in my opinion) the five WORST horror movies EVER made.

5. The Grudge

4. Freddy Vs. Jason

3. The Blair Witch Project 2

2. Boogeyman

1. Darkness Falls

In one of the best films this year, Charlize Theron gives an outstanding performance, playing a mother of two, who leaves her husband to escape an abusive lifestyle. She moves up North to live near her relatives and takes a job in the mines with her father, unaware that she would soon become the victin of more abuse and sexual harassment than she could have ever imagined.

The acting in this film is excellent and the cast includes several Academy Award winning actresses and Academy Award Nominee Woody Harrelson. The film is fantastic and should be seen by anyone who gets the chance.

Doom: A Mess of Confusion and Apocalyptic Mayhem

The trailer for Doom portrayed the film as a film shot primarily in first person, while having many cut away scenes shot like a regular film, to keep a sense that you were actually in the film. The commercials and movie posters were misleading.

The films plot is simple. A virus has spread turning everyone into giant monsters and flesh hungry zombies. Now it is up to The Rock to save all of man kind. That is all it is. It's just another special effects driven, badly acted, time wasting pile of Hollywood garbage. It leaves nothing to the imagination , and doesn't thrill you with anything you haven't seen before.

The first person effects in the film were, needless to say, awesome, but there was one problem with them. They took up two minutes out of this two hour long movie! The trailer for the movie showed most of these scenes anyway. It was a disappointing failure of a great idea.

This film is totally not worth seeing. Though I myself am not a personal fan of the video game (I am praying for a well-made 'Quake' film) I attended the movie with a few 'Doom' fans and all agreed that they were less than impressed.

The sequel to Kevin Smith's "Clerks" is to be released next year. The idea for "Passion of the Clerks" was originally put to rest, when Kevin Smith decided to end the Jay and Silent Bob saga with "Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back" in 2001. After Smith's flop "Jersey Girl" in the early months of 2004, Kevin realized that Jay and Silent Bob must be revived.

The teaser trailer for this film can be seen here:

http://www.movie-list.com/trailers.php?id=clerks2

THIS IS GOING TO BE SO GREAT!

Well, this weekend officially marks the start of Academy Awards season. This is the week when we begin seeing the best movies of the year being release din theaters.

Doom - Starring the Rock - The first film to be shot in first person! This movie look s amazing for its technique of filmmaking. Sure the acting will be below normal, but what can I say. This movie looks cool.

North Country - Starring Charlize Theron - This film looks excellent. I'm sure it will be nominated for an Academy Award.

Dreamer - Starring Dakota Fanning and Kurt Russell This film has great actors, but can anyone say "Sea Biscuit" rip off?

Kicking and Screaming – Will Ferrell becomes an overly obsessive soccer coach, when he finds himself competing against his own father. Though the film is slow at some points and tries to snag cheap laughs from the bottom of the barrel, the film is very entertaining. It is very true to life and shows why many soccer moms and dads are in the game more than their kids are. This is definitely worth renting.

The Amityville Horror – A family of five moves into a house on Long Island, that is said to be possessed by the spirits of those murdered there. This was probably one of the best remakes I’ve seen in a while. It was scary and entertaining. The only problem I had was that I’m pretty sure (not 100%) that the houses interior was the same as the interior in “Hide and Seek.” I recommend renting this film.

Elizabethtown - A Mess of Confusion Without a Plan

Cameron Crowe's new film Elizabethtown is about a young suicidal man (Orlando Bloom) who is about to kill himself when he gets a call saying that his father had died. He decides that he will return home for the funeral and will afterwards kill himself. However "his plan" is interrupted by a stewardess named Claire (Kirsten Dunst) who becomes intrusive in his life.

I am not going to continue summarizing this film because it will cause me to give away the ending. The film is as confusing as it is emotionless. The entire film was about how he felt bad that he never spent time with his father. I never once related to any of the characters.

The acting on Orlando Bloom's part was alright, but it didn't give the film what it needed to be great. Kirsten Dunst also didn't do a fantastic job. I could understand her emotions better than I could understand Bloom's, however she kept changing her accent. It started off sounding southern, then it changed to Northeastern, then it changed back to Southern, and by the end she had no accent at all. In fact the best actor in the film, Alec Baldwin, had a character that appeared for about ten minutes of this two hour film. The characters were not well developed. There were many characters that had no significance in the film, but they kept coming back. Again, a poor choice on Crowe's part.

The writing itself was all over the place. It seemed as though Cameron Crowe took eight separate ideas for eight different movies and he stuck them all together. The film was light hearted, but he would often try to slip in a comedic scene. These scenes were funny, but they were very random and seemed cartoonish compared to the rest of the film. The films ending also needed work. Again, it seemed like Crowe had multiple ideas for an ending and then he decided to put them all together.

In short, the plot was overdeveloped and the characters were underdeveloped. The film itself was sloppily made and was utterly confusing. This film may be entertaining for a little while, but the entire story line gets old fast. It's a messy movie from beginning to end.

Elizabethtown - Directed by Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous), Elizabethtown is about a man (Orlando Bloom) who crosses paths with a stewardess (Kirsten Dunst) while traveling to his father’s funeral. The movie also stars Susan Sarandon and Alec Baldwin. This film looks very entertaining and I am expecting a great movie. This is the film I will be reviewing this weekend.

Domino - A young woman follows her dream of becoming a bounty hunter in LA. This film stars Kierra Knightly and Christopher Walken. This movie looks original and entertaining. I would be seeing this movie if it were playing at Smittys Cinema in Sanford. Unfortunately it isn’t.

The Fog - One hundred years ago, a ship mysteriously vanished into the fog off the coast of a small town. Now the fog has returned and people are disappearing. The film does not strike an interest in me however it may be worth a matinee.

Next week I will be review 'Doom' which is based on the popular video game.

10. Just Friends - This looks like it will be the funniest romantic comedy in a long time.

9. Disney’s Chicken Little - What can I say? For a kids movie it looks pretty darn funny.

8. Munich – Directed by Steven Spielberg - This looks as though it is a shoe-in for an Academy Award Nomination.

7. Doom – Starring The Rock - Half of this movie is in first person! Is that cool or what?

6. North Country – Starring Charlize Theoron and Woddy Harrelson - Another shoe-in for an Academy Award nomination.

5. The Family Stone – Starring Luke Wilson and Sarah Jessica Parker - This film has a great cast and looks like a hilarious, feel-good, holiday film.

4. The Weather Man – Starring Nicolas Cage and Michael Caine - Nicolas Cage makes some of the BEST movies. I believe this one will be great as well.

3. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – Starring Daniel Radcliffe - This looks like it will be the best "Potter" film yet.

2. The Producers – Starring Nathan Lane, Matthew Brodrick and Will Ferrell - I am a huge fan of the original and I know the remake will be just as good.

1. Fun with Dick and Jane – Starring Jim Carrey and Tea Leoni - Jim carrey is my favorite actor of all time. This is bound to be a great film.

Kicking and Screaming - Will Ferrell plays a soccer coach, who is determined to have the best team in the league. Robert Duvall co-stars as Will's father and rival coach.

This coming friday has a few good looking films to offer.

Elizabethtown - Directed by Cameron Crow, Elizabethtown is about a man (Orlando Bloom) who crosses paths with a stewardess (Kirsten Dunst) while traveling to his fathers funeral. This film looks very entertaining and I am expecting a great movie.

Domino - A young woman follows her dream of becoming a bounty hunter in LA. This film stars Kierra Knightly and Christopher Walken. This movie looks original and entertaining.

The Fog - One hundred years ago, a ship mysteriously vanished into the fog, off the coast of a small town. Now the fog has returned and people are disappearing. The film does not strike an interest in me, however it may be worth a matinee.

Flight Plan (late review)

When a woman's husband dies in Germany, she feels she needs to take her daughter away from that environment. Unfortunately, the woman's choice to go to America will cause her to lose her daughter. In mid-flight, the woman's daughter mysteriously vanishes into thin air.

The film is pretty good, however the film becomes very slow in the middle. The film also has no great twist at the end. In fact, I was surprised at how simple it was to figure out what happened. It was almost as if it were "too obvious to be what I thought" so I dismissed my theory. Then when it turned out I was right in the first place, I was surprised.

Overall it was an okay movie, but it did not meet my expectations. Red Eye was the better of the two "airplane thrillers" this year.

Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were Rabbit

Nick Park has done it again. In 2000 I was amazed by the highly entertaining chicken run. Now, the British Television show I've been watching since I was six, has become a full length motion film. This film completely lived up to the original show, and absolutely blew me away with terrific characters, witty jokes, and amazing detail and craftsmanship.

This film is excellent and EVERYONE should go see it.

Disney’s animated classic “Cinderella” is released on DVD for the first time today. This two disk DVD set includes a digitally re-mastered version of the original film and hours of bonus features.

The interpreter starring Sean Penn and Nicole Kidman is also released today. This film follows Sean Penn as he assigned to protect a U.N. interpreter, who overhears a death threat. The DVD includes director commentary and Cast and Crew interviews.

Other DVD releases:

House of D
Amityville Horror
The Fly

“JUST LIKE HEAVEN”

Okay, Into the Blue looked really bad and wasn’t about to go see Serenity, so I checked out a movie that has been out for a couple weeks. “Just Like Heaven” is a romantic comedy about a guy who moves into a vacant (yet furnished) apartment, to find the spirit of a woman, who believes she lives there. The film stars Mark Ruffalo, Reese Witherspoon, and Napoleon Dynamite’s John Heder.

The film had the feel of Romantic comedies such as “13 Going on 30” (which also starred Ruffalo), but this film wasn’t just targeted towards girls. The films humor would make anyone in the audience laugh, and John Heder (though he was typecast) was responsible for a few great laughs. The ending dragged on a little, but overall the film exceeded my expectations and I recommend you check it out.

ROMAN POLANSKI’S “OLIVER TWIST”

Films that are based off of Charles Dickins books always turn out one of two ways. The film will either be an instant classic, like “A Christmas Carol” starring George C. Scott, or the film will be dull and uneventful. Oliver Twist was the latter. The first half hour of the film was captivating, with brilliant acting and terrific characters. However the hour that took up the middle of the film was very boring. I nearly fell asleep during one point of the movie, which I NEVER do. The film then picked up again during the last half hour, but none the less the film felt way too long and it needed something more to it.

UPCOMING FILMS

I am happy to say that “Wallace and Grommit: The Curse of the Wererabbit” is due to be released this Friday. The film follows Wallace, an eccentric Inventor, and his silent, yet intellectual dog Grommit as they attempt to rid their town of a “nasty pest problem.” I will be first in line for this film.

The other film to be released this Friday is “Waiting” a comedy about what it’s like to work in the kitchen of a restaurant. This film looks utterly hilarious, and I look forward to checking it out.