A host of morally devoid characters fill out the cast of this 18th century drama. All the names of the characters in the movie are really long and French, so I’ll just use the actors’ names to describe the basic plot. So John Malkovich plays this guy who is the biggest womanizer ever. Glenn Close tells him that he can sleep with her if he successfully seduces her niece, played by Uma Thurman. Glenn Close wants to take revenge on the man Uma Thurman is supposed to marry, who used to be her lover. So John Malkovich does just that, and then he also manages to seduce Michelle Pfeiffer, only this time he falls in love with her. He goes back to Glenn Close to claim his prize for seducing Uma Thurman and some ridiculous drama happens. Will John Malkovich actually win the wager? Will Michelle Pfeiffer keep on loving him? Why has Glenn Close looked like she was 80 years old ever since she was in her late 30′s? Tune into this movie to find out… actually it’s pretty dramatic, but not very edifying, if you ask me.

If you manage to pay attention closely enough to stick with the complicated and sometimes under-emphasized twists in the plot of this film, it delivers with a bang. The ending was the best part, and it was completely worth getting there for me. The movie uses a stylistic ‘trading’ of various scenes arranged in a square box, with each scene taking up a quarter of the film screen. This effect acts as a transition from one period of time to another, so that it becomes more clear when certain elements of the story are being told out of order. Actually, it’s supposed to do that, but it doesn’t really achieve its goal. It wasn’t until halfway through the film that I realized this was actually what was happening, but hopefully in reading this you are now prepared to see it. In any case, this film gets 4 flames from me because it’s just that good – a solid, original film with Clive Owens and Julia Roberts at the helm and backed by several other powerful names makes this a fun one to watch.

A sub-par plot and less than stellar acting round out this mediocre comedy. The surprisingly quick-witted Willy Nelson is actually the stand-out role – he’s even more fun to watch than Jessica Simpson jiggling, although that wasn’t bad either. If only she could act her way out of a paper bag with a pair of scissors. Rent this if you have time, and only if you think it’s worth sitting through 90 minutes of poorly performed southern accents only to realize that Daisy Duke should be seen and not heard.

This one’s sure to go down as one of Scorsese’s greatest masterpieces, a story of hidden alliances and backstabbing. So many people die in this movie it’s ridiculous. The ensemble cast is stellar, taking you through the winding storyline with grace and precision, and when you get to the ending it clubs you across the jaw like a steel fencepost. Completely wicked, get off the internetz and go see it now.

Ben Stiller is a funny guy, but this one is definitely a rental. I’ll already spoil the surprise for you and tell you I gave it a mere 2.5 on the scale of awesomeness. Sorry to give it away so early in the review, but this picture had a ton of slapstick which was sometimes funny and sometimes not. If you rent the DVD, check out the alternate ending. This movie would have been ten times better if it had ended that way instead of the dumb, typical way it actually did. Oh I almost forgot, the extra .5 on there is because Ben Stiller’s wife, formerly Marsha Brady, is lookin pretty good throughout the duration.