Casino — A violent mobster drama that's now a classic — 10*/10

• Overall: Tense, violent and excellent. One of the great movies by legendary director Martin Scorsese.
• Who is it for? Those looking for an intense crime drama.
• Synopsis & information: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112641/
• Known actors: Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci (his best performance ever) and James Woods.
• Setting: Rich criminals in Las Vegas.
• Style: Violent mobster drama.
• Pacing: Slow development but always captivating.
• Intro: Extensive, rich with details. You get completely immersed in the situation.
• Story: Unfolds in a dramatic way, with almost never a dull or happy moment.
• Ending: Everything goes to shit and folds up squarely.
• Epilogue: Interesting. Violent.
• Dialogs: Solid and extremely believable.
• Characters: Incredible depth.
• Acting: Superb. Perfect. Almost too perfect.
• Special Effects: The explosion is getting a little old, but still excellent.
• Costumes: Eye popping.

Braveheart — It captured the imagination then and it still does now — 9*/10

• Overall: Epic medieval story by actor-director Mel Gibson that will easily transport you. 
• Who is it for? Anyone wanting to watch a grandiose story. Short attention spans should abstain, because it is very long and develops slowly. It is also quite violent.
• Synopsis & information: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112573/
• Known actors: Mel Gibson, Sophie Marceau, John Kavanagh, Brendan Gleeson and Tommy Flanagan.
• Cameos: Brian Cox.
• Setting: Grubby, dirty medieval England and Scotland.
• Style: Gritty sometimes gory folk hero war story with a side of romance. Lots of different elements make for a complete tale.
• Pacing: There are multiple culmination points and multiple paces to the storytelling which gathered together build a great narration. It is quite long, almost three hours.
• Intro: Slowly sets the tone and immerses us in the story.
• Story: It has a lot to tell and it takes its time to do it. Full of action, battles, angry Scots and some romance, it is no wonder it was such a success and it is still now a cultural reference.
• Ending: Gripping. Gut wrenching.
• Epilogue: Could have done without it, although it is pretty moving.
• Dialogs: Well rendered.
• Characters: They all have very palpable personality. As you get to know each of them, you get to understand each of them without a doubt.
• Acting: Superb.
• Visuals: Beautiful in a gritty way. The film is getting old and you can see it, but you can still appreciate the quality.
• Special Effects: Only a few disappointing mishaps that you usually only see on subsequent watch.
• Costumes: Excellent designs, very realistic.
• Score: Gripping, grandiose.

Se7en - Perfection in a bone chilling costume of perfect serial murders - 10*/10

Se7en is no less than a master piece by David Fincher. The gripping ambiance, the sheer genius of the scenario as well as the acting power of Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt and Kevin Spacey are it's strongest point, but there's no aspect that is less than great. (Except for one very minute detail.) One thing that is often overlooked is the backdrop discussion on society by the main characters which makes the movie that much better.

A must see if you don't mind harsh crimes.
10*/10

Ghost in the Shell - A solid intro to the menga world - 8*/10

Ghost in the Shell is a relatively old manga, but still very watchable. It has a captivating score and a strong intrigue. The story explore the definition of self, consciousness and life through AI, at least a future version of it, at the time of singularity.

For sci-fi enthusiasts who wish to explore manga.
8*/10

The Basketball Diaries — How low can a street kid go — 10*/10

The Basketball Diaries is the movie that showed exactly how much acting potential Leonardo DiCaprio has.

The good. Gripping sad story. Extreme realism and superb acting, you really get into their shoes, very immersive. You get to understand their story, their situation. Tight well executed scenes. Nice camera work. Solid score.

The actors. Not only does Leonardo DiCaprio shine like a true star, but Mark Wahlberg also shows his talent. The rest of the cast is almost as impeccable.

The bad. The end scene on the stage is badly staged. No pun intended. It's a bit awkward, but it's easily forgivable.

The ugly. It pictures drugs as a social disease whereas their use is actually a symptom of an underlying problem. But then, everybody thinks that, because that's the official story.

The result. It's a forbidding tale, but everyone should watch it and understand.

10*/10

Twelve Monkeys — Ready for a slow crude take on a fatal pandemic? — 8*/10

Twelve Monkeys is the kind of movie that gets much better with time. With each subsequent viewing, you start appreciating something new, understanding the story a little bit more, and linking new plots elements. I'm saying this because the settings and scenes are rather crude and unpleasant to assimilate, even though the final product is incredible.

The good. Tight logical story. Engrossing scenario that gets better with time. Excellent acting. Interesting treatment of a fairly common theme. Great details. Nice conception of the future.

The actors. Bruce Willis plays the dislocated and slightly unhinged hero to perfection. Great acting. Madeleine Stowe is just right as the unwilling but open-minded participant. Brad Pitt's mad interpretation is pure genius and an obvious precursor of his role in Fight Club (review still to come).

The bad. The whole flick will not please everybody for its gruesome take, the slow development, and the logical conclusion, which I must admit is as it should be. It is morally disappointing and a slightly simple considering the circumvolutions of the story itself.

The ugly. Nothing ugly there, but the rawness of it all.

The result. Watch it. Let a year go by. Watch it again.

8*/10

Heat — High stake efficiently brutal holdups and two razor sharp minds — 10*/10

Heat is the quintessential dark and dramatic cops and robber movie. It puts the best holdup crew against the best lead investigator in high stake complex scores. It's brutal, it's raw, it's crime, pure and simple. There's violence, however, it's a very more of a dramatic piece. The real juice is the opposition of the two mind, it's psychological.

The score gives shiver. The photography transfixes. The acting plunges you deeply within the fabric of the movie. The story is ultra captivating. The action is breathtaking, yet simple and very real. The characters are well layered and with lots of emotional depth, yet easy to understand.

You spend a lot of time with the two protagonists. You see their daily life. You get to know them. Robert De Niro plays a stone hard persona, efficient and brutally direct when needed. He's the criminal, yet he's almost endearing. Al Pacino plays a fiery angry cop who will stop at nothing, just keeping in sight of the law, to get his man. He's easy to hate, the way he yells and shut out his family life.

The star studded cast who performed so well also includes: Val Kilmer, Jon Voight, Tom Sizemore, Justine Hanna, Ashley Judd, Hank Azaria, Danny Trejo, plus a very young Natalie Portman playing a small yet powerful role as the step daughter of the main detective. In her portrayal you can already see the great actress she became.

It's a must see.

10*/10

The Usual Suspects — Criminals versus criminals, and everyone chasing their own tail — 7*/10

The Usual Suspects your typical let's twist the tale around to keep you from guessing who's doing what. You get criminals who catch criminals in a bind to get them to do a coup for them. Nothing new.

The story is interesting and keeps you attentive. The action is nice, but tame by today's standard. The plot is not too complicated, if confusing at first.

However, the lines the characters feed us are a little too slick, and some of the acting is a bit over done, especially on the part of Chazz Palminteri and Stephen Baldwin. Benicio Del Toro is unfortunately not at his best, while Kevin Spacey presents the top performance of the lot, and the rest of the cast gives only an acceptable one, but not much better.

Worst part is, there's a major flaw in the initial voice over. You'll only catch it if you think about it, and not before you've seen the whole flick.

If you like criminal intrigue, you probably will like it.

7*/10

Mallrats — Low budget comedy and romance for some good fun — 7*/10

Mallrats is an easy comedy with romance as its reason to live. Set almost entirely in a mall and populated by its denizens, we're rewarded by juvenile arguments, pranks and stunts.

Shannen Doherty is the big name of the production. She has a supporting role, playing, with a nice ring of truth, a girl who got sick and tired of her looser boyfriend, played by Jason Lee, and dumps him. Lee gives us the best performance of the cast, and with this verbose intensive role made his place on the big screen. Ben Affleck, at that time, was still relatively unknown, and even though this portrayal of an ass hole was right on target, the part was a very small one. The second main character was played by somebody that barely made the grade. His girlfriend was played by Claire Forlani who gave us a good solid performance.

The story is interesting, with nice details and interesting plot twists. Even though Kevin Smith got substantially more budget this time around, the film still has an obvious low budget shine to it. Smith is slowly polishing his skills, but has yet to reach full proficiency. The dialogs and original story are is best weapons, and this piece shows that well as each scene is delivered as a verbal dance. Excellent work.

Don't take it too seriously, and you'll have lots of fun.

7*/10

Toy Story — An incomparable animation about toys' secret life — 9*/10

Toy Story, the first of the series, was a spectacular achievement. Not only was it completely rendered digitally, the quality was very high to equal or better most standard animation, but it was actually excellent fun. On top of that, you had the novel idea of a toy's secret life, a great story, awesome voice acting, lots of jokes, a bit of drama, some suspense, real life conflicts of personality, solid dialogs, and some heroics, all of which resulted in a complete package that anyone of any age can appreciate.

The cast distribution was done smartly, each actor corresponding perfectly to their characters. The soundtrack was discreet and avoided a big sing along, which is a blessing.

The only thing that could be thought of as negative was the technology limitation at the time. The colors are a bit stiff, lacking a bit of shadowing and lighting, but it's really minimal, certainly not enough to distract from this quality piece.

I highly recommend it unless you're not interested in animation at all.

9*/10

Empire Records — Mostly marginal kids working in a record shop as solace — 7*/10

Empire Records is funny and slightly offbeat teen movie. A well built one, which each quirky character having a well defined personality, a set of problems, and realistic interactions with each other. Their personas all ring solidly true, each with deep emotional affects. However, not everybody will see themselves represented here, it is but a thin slice of society.

The music is good, the dialogs are interesting just like the story, and it keeps an overall  positive tone, although it does talk about some serious issues. It touches each subjects lightly, and keep the focus on the what is happening, on the development of the situation.

You will be entertained, if you're looking for a good adolescent flick.

7*/10

Clueless — A sweet rich girl in the midst of romance an love — 7*/10

Clueless is about a sweet rich girl who is totally clueless about most things in life except for shopping. It sounds terrible, but actually, it's presented in an adorable way.

You get attached to the main character very quickly and root her efforts to make the world a better place. It's all setup in the world of the very rich, yet you can't help yourself.

Alicia Silverstone and Paul Rudd have excellent chemistry and are giving us very good acting. The rest of the ensemble is of lesser value, but nothing to detract our attention.

The story is simple, elegant, and nice to embark upon. The only thing that I have to pick at? The phones are getting old. And that hat! (You'll see what I mean.)

See it, it's sweet.

7*/10