CD-Charts Position 1
Average Rating:

Persuasion

starring: Amanda Root, Ciarán Hinds, Susan Fleetwood, Corin Redgrave, Fiona Shaw
directed by: Roger Michell

Release Date February 01, 2000
See this one; this Wentworth-Anne match is the best.

My favorite is Amanda Root; she's brilliant here. She captures Anne's patience and gentle forbearance, but what I love most is how her eyes shine when she's happy. It's in keeping with Anne - quiet, demure - but it shows Anne's own strength. Even movie stills manage to capture that light in her eyes - I don't know how Root did it, but it was fantastic. Root's performance matches the ever-excellent Ciaran Hinds, and that's not an easy task; I had a hard time watching Hinds' "Jane Eyre" (opposite Samantha Morton's Jane) because they didn't seem well matched to me.

Those two alone make this Persuasion the one to see.

I don't consider it perfect: I ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 2
Average Rating:

Two for the Road

starring: Audrey Hepburn, Albert Finney, Eleanor Bron, William Daniels, Gabrielle Middleton
directed by: Stanley Donen

Release Date November 01, 2005
This is a movie that has suffered the onslaught of time. I believe it was probably seen as avant garde when it came out but now it feels dated.
The performances are fine but the actual story has lost a lot of its bite because of changing moral values. Maybe this was one of the movies that ushered the change?

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

The Mayor of Casterbridge

starring: Ciarán Hinds, Juliet Aubrey, Jodhi May, James Purefoy, Polly Walker (II)
directed by: David Thacker

Release Date September 30, 2003
I am still reeling that my favorite stars from Rome are in this movie! It was actually filmed before Rome but I didn't see it then. It is a wonderful understated story of a man who sells his wife and child for 5 guineas in a drunken rage and she comes back after 19 years. The story weaves and turns as a it did because it was originally a serial in a magazine. The story and acting is magnificent and I cried in all the right places.

CD-Charts Position 4
Average Rating:

Wuthering Heights (1970)

starring: Anna Calder-Marshall, Timothy Dalton, Harry Andrews, Pamela Brown, Judy Cornwell
directed by: Robert Fuest

Release Date December 26, 2001
Brilliant performance by Timothy Dalton and good casting of all other major characters. Wonderful Yorkshire moors photography, and authentic dialog from the book. Does not treat the second half of the book, and ending is not correct, but was a good effort to capture the spirit and feel of the novel.

CD-Charts Position 5
Average Rating:

Santa Claus - The Movie (20th Anniversary Edition)

starring: Dudley Moore, John Lithgow, David Huddleston, Burgess Meredith, Judy Cornwell
directed by: Jeannot Szwarc

Release Date October 04, 2005
I haven't seen this film in such pristine glory since it's initial release in 1985 while I was stationed in England as a 21 year old Air Force airman, and it took me back to that simpler time in my life. The effects hold up very well in this new DVD (unlike previous video and television versions which looked like they were recorded straight from a TV monitor), especially the full shots of the sleigh team in flight. The only (minor) problem I had was with the film's continuity during one scene: during the chase to the North Pole, the six reindeer are at an incredible speed cutting thru the sky, but when Santa stands up in the sleigh shouting encouragement to his team, his loose-hanging coat DOES NOT flap in the wind--AT ALL!!! That has always bothered me; maybe ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 6
Average Rating:

What's the Matter with Helen?/Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (Midnite Movies Double Feature)

starring: Shelley Winters, Mark Lester, Chloe Franks, Ralph Richardson, Lionel Jeffries
directed by: Curtis Harrington

Release Date August 27, 2002
In 1972, I became an instant fan of Shelly Winters who starred in the blockbuster disaster movie "The Poseidon Adventure." I adored her as "the fat Mrs. Rosen" who saves Reverend Scott from drowning even though she suffers a deadly heart attack in the process. Around the same time period as "The Poseidon Adventure," Winters also starred in two psychological horror movies, "What's the Matter with Helen?" and "Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?," in which she portrays two talented women who experience mental breakdowns that lead to psychotic, murderous behavior. Both were set in the Depression era and both were directed by Curtis Harrington; he also directed "How Awful About Allan," starring Anthony Hopkins of "Psycho" fame.

"What's the Matter With Helen" ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 7
Average Rating:

The Student Prince

starring: Robson Green, Gavin Richards, Peter Lovstrom, Tara Fitzgerald, Terence Rigby
directed by: Simon Curtis

Release Date May 10, 2005
I like this film. A male cinderella story that was marred slightly by the political ending. The film would have ended better leaving off with just the Robson Green character's transformation. I thought the Prince's learned nothing and was nothing more than incidental. Will be ordering more Robson Green. He is a wonderfully charismatic actor.

CD-Charts Position 8
Average Rating:

Mary, Mother of Jesus

starring: Christian Bale, Pernilla August, Melinda Kinnaman, David Threlfall, Simone Bendix
directed by: Kevin Connor

Release Date March 18, 2003
Implementing an admirably brisk pace, and sporting some exciting crowd and chase scenes, 'Mary, Mother of Jesus' has an instant appeal. Keeping close to scripture in key portions of Mary's and Jesus' lives, the film, nevertheless, may bring controversy with some of the fill-in interpretational moments. With good performances all around, especially Pernilla August in the title role and Christian Bale as the grown Jesus, the movie, however, presents a Mary that's a little more outspoken and fiesty than we're accustomed to. (Sometimes I had to wince when Mary teaches Jesus the "Good Samaritan" story and her protest against a stoning of an adulterer before Jesus is born. Yet, the Bible does state that Jesus "increased in wisdom and in stature..." He did learn things.) Also, John ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 9
Average Rating:

Persuasion

starring: Amanda Root, Ciarán Hinds, Susan Fleetwood, Corin Redgrave, Fiona Shaw
directed by: Roger Michell

Release Date November 12, 1996
See this one; this Wentworth-Anne match is the best.

My favorite is Amanda Root; she's brilliant here. She captures Anne's patience and gentle forbearance, but what I love most is how her eyes shine when she's happy. It's in keeping with Anne - quiet, demure - but it shows Anne's own strength. Even movie stills manage to capture that light in her eyes - I don't know how Root did it, but it was fantastic. Root's performance matches the ever-excellent Ciaran Hinds, and that's not an easy task; I had a hard time watching Hinds' "Jane Eyre" (opposite Samantha Morton's Jane) because they didn't seem well matched to me.

Those two alone make this Persuasion the one to see.

I don't consider it perfect: I preferred the 2007's Benwick and Lady Russell and ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 10
Average Rating:

Wuthering Heights (Cliffs Notes Version)

starring: Anna Calder-Marshall, Timothy Dalton, Harry Andrews, Pamela Brown, Judy Cornwell
directed by: Robert Fuest

Release Date July 24, 2007
Brilliant performance by Timothy Dalton and good casting of all other major characters. Wonderful Yorkshire moors photography, and authentic dialog from the book. Does not treat the second half of the book, and ending is not correct, but was a good effort to capture the spirit and feel of the novel.