APRIL 13th - 19th

More than a tribute, this adrenaline-packed double feature is a true remaking of B-movies from the 80’s, put together with the unique energy that only Robert Rodríguez and Quentin Tarantino can muster. This flick is not to be taken seriously, but rather, as an excuse to laugh your head off, be it at the bloody zombies (Planet Terror) or psychopaths on wheels (Death Proof).
Rating: A

Yet another flick about apocalyptic plagues. Not even Hillary Swank’s talent manages to rescue this film, full of computer-generated special effects and totally lacking in depth. After Freedom Writers and this script, the actress, twice honored with Academy Awards (beating out Annette Bening each time), seems to be the victim of a plague brought on by the statuette’s curse.
Rating: C

Perhaps to those unfamiliar with Mexican novelas from yesteryear or Silvia Pinal’s miniseries, this film, nominated for a Foreign Language Oscar, may seem refreshing. But to those of us who have been subjected to television’s sappiness and emotional blackmail, this is nothing more than a well-done episode of Mujer: Casos de la Vida Real. It offers the works: from false paternities to family secrets, from people who hide they are on their deathbed to villains who in fact are as good as gold.
Rating: C+

Great performance by Forest Whitaker as Uganda’s brutal and torturing dictator, Idi Amin. Based on a real story but told by a fictitious narrator who supposedly was his personal doctor, the film depicts this tyrant’s triumph and fall. Not for the weak of heart – or stomach. Rating: A-

Using vignettes and a multi-star cast, Emilio Estevez directs this film about Robert Kennedy’s assassination on June 6, 1968. By weaving together the lives of 22 people who were at the hotel where he was killed, Estevez, also an actor, captures interesting moments, but most of the time gets lost in all the different subplots.
Rating: B

Although the plot has a ring to Single White Female and Fatal Attraction, this portrait of a lesbian’s obsession with a fellow high school teacher (who is caught having sex with one of her male students), becomes vital thanks to the acting by Dame Judi Dench and the always superb Cate Blanchett.
Rating: A

The Lives of Others, winner of an Oscar for Best Foreign Film, is a methodic and touching study of human compassion. In the film, set just before the fall of the Berlin Wall, an East German police agent analyzes a playwright’s life in detail.
Rating: A