jcorpuz@ucsd.edu

This movie seems to be postcard perfect, a lesson straight out of the director's guide to romantic movies. Boy meets girl at a carnival, love from the other side of the tracks, a date by the water, etc. And yet the wonderful thing about this movie is that it takes what seems like a story you've heard already (at least in bits and pieces) and still moves you deeply. It really speaks about love in a way that most romantic movies miss by speaking in cliché or over shoot by adding in numerous complications to dramatize things. There have been other great movies to comment on love in recent years (Eternal Sunshine, Lost In Translation jump to mind) but this movie fills a need that those other movies miss: the need for a straight, sweep you off your feet romance. Too bad there can't be movies like this every year...

"The Haunted Mansion" is a deep, theological allegory centering on the great powers and similarities of heaven and of hell. The question has the boldness to ask "Of which does thine soul belong?" No wait hold wrong flick... "The Haunted Mansion", out in theatres for Thanksgiving in a genius move of holiday-movie theme timing, is acceptable light entertainment, an easy shallow Disney flick with a meandering plot that doesn't really move you in any particular way. It delivers some PG thrills, some PG yuks and then politely wipes itself from your memory not more than a few steps out of the theatre. So go take the family to see it if you are so inclined (although Elf is a much better famoly flick). It's not terrible, but it seems like it should've been aired on the Disney Channel a month ago. Very ineffectual movie with that expected manufactured by Disney stamp on it. It could've been a more creative, more filled imagining of the ride but for what it is, it's ok. 5 outta 10.

This movie was disappointing by any standard. With immediately forgettable characters (who you couldn't care less about whether or not they live or die) laughable, garish special effects, and extremely unfrightening zombie things as the primary terror delivery systems, "Resident Evil" doesn't have enough action, scares, or anything else for that matter to satisfy anyone. Not horror junkies, not video game fans, not even teenage boys looking for a lowbrow 90 minute diversion. It's even more glaringly bad when you consider that its left itself open for a sequel... *sigh* Well as long as people keep pouring millions and millions of dollars into crud, unoriginal movies, Hollywood'll keep pumping them out.