title: Papillon function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close(); <br> studio: Warner Bros. Home Video MPAA rating: PG starring: Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman, Victor Jory, Don Gordon, Anthony Zerbe, Robert Deman, Woodrow Parfrey, Bill Mumy, George Coulouris release year: 1973 film rating: Three and a half stars reviewed by: Bill Warren PAPILLON keeps coming close to greatness, and never makes it. Based on the international best-selling autobiography of Henri Charriere, a French petty criminal who was convicted to the French penal system in South America. After several escape attempts, he was sent to "Devil's Island," a prison where the true guards were the sharks in the waters around the isolated isle. Nonetheless, Charriere finally did escape from Devil's Island.

title: The Aviator function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close(); studio: Warner Bros. Home Video MPAA rating: PG-13 starring: Leonardo Di Caprio, Cate Blanchett, John C. Reilly, Kate Beckinsale, Alan Alda, Alec Baldwin theatrical release year: 2004 DVD release year: 2005 film rating: Five Stars sound/picture rating: Four Stars reviewed by: Bill Warren The first part here is a condensed version of our review of the theatrical release of “The Aviator.” Notes on the DVD follow. This movie may have been instrumental in changing the current common image of Howard Hughes as a wacky old miser holed up in a series of Las Vegas hotels, his hair and fingernails grown long, hoarding his own urine. However he ended up, he was one of the most remarkable individuals of the 20th Century, in some ways the emblem of that century: a lanky guy from Texas, a multi-millionaire by his early twenties, who barged into Hollywood, made one of the greatest early talkies, romanced famous stars, set aerial speed records, took TWA ...

title: Kinsey function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close();  studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment MPAA rating: R starring: Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Chris O’Donnell, Peter Sarsgaard, Timothy Hutton, John Lithgow, Tim Curry, Oliver Platt, Dylan Baker film release year: 2004 DVD release year: 2005 film rating: Four Stars sound/picture rating: Three Stars reviewed by: Abbie Bernstein The ads for “Kinsey” didn’t describe it as “the feel-good film of the year,” but in fact, it has precisely that effect. In creating a drama about the life of socially pivotal sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, who by all reports was a somewhat cold and emotionally challenged man, writer/director Bill Condon has created something warm, insightful, often funny and ultimately exhilarating.

title: The Chorus (Les Choristes) function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close(); studio: Miramax Home Entertainment MPAA rating: PG-13 starring: Gérard Jugnot, François Berléand, Jean-Baptiste Maunier, Kad Merat, Jean-Paul Bonnaire, Marie Bunel, Maxence Perrin, Jacques Perrin, Didier Flamand theatrical release year: 2004; a French-German-Swiss coproduction DVD release year: 2005 film rating: Three and a Half Stars sound/picture rating: Three and a Half Stars reviewed by: Bill Warren The great teacher who makes a huge difference in students’ lives is a long-time fixture of movies. A new one comes along every few years, and almost everyone gets swept into the charm of the whole thing once more. There were “Goodbye Mr. Chips” and “Good Morning Miss Dove,” there were “Mr. Holland’s Opus” and “Music of the Heart,” there were “Dead Poet’s Society” and “Mona Lisa Smile.” On and on, again and again, pretty much the same story is retold again and again; this current example, “The Chorus,” is itself a remake of “La Cage aux Rossignols” (1945).

title: Vera Drake function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close();  studio: New Line Home Entertainment MPAA rating: R starring: Imelda Staunton, Philip Davis, Peter Wight, Daniel Mays, Alex Kelly, Eddie Marsan film release year: 2004 DVD release year: 2005 film rating: Four Stars sound/picture rating: Three-and-a-Half Stars reviewed by: Abbie Bernstein “Vera Drake” was nominated for 2004 Academy Awards for Best Actress (Imelda Staunton), Best Director (Mike Leigh) and Best Original Screenplay (Leigh again). It’s easy to understand why – a quiet movie about quiet people who rarely so much as raise their voices, it builds to emotional hurricane force.