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Be Cool (2005) --> Every once in a while you will have a sequel that outshines its original. Be Cool is one of these films. Starring John Travolta as Chili Palmer, the film picks up on Chili wanting to leave the movie business and try his hand at music. But it wasn't Travolta's acting that made this film great (although Travolta and Thurman's dance sequence was memorable as it brought back the electricity they had in Pulp Fiction) , it was Vince Vaughn as wanna-be black gangsta Raji, and The Rock as gay bodyguard and aspiring actor Elliot that steal the show. F. Gary Gray (The Negotiator (1998), The Italian Job (2003)) directs and Peter Steinfeld writes.


Full Spectrum Staff

Love Actually (2003) --> This film both written and directed by Richard Curtis (he also wrote the screenplays for Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill and Bean, The Movie among others) is a brilliant foray into the subject of love. Following the lives of 8 couples Curtis shows the agony and ecstasy of this all-powerful emotion. From a boy in love with the most popular girl at school to a man in love with his best friend's wife we see what love can do to the hearts of men; the Prime Minister (played charmingly by Hugh Grant) himself is not immune to its charms. Throw in a humorous element (a relationship started between body doubles and an English twenty-something's trip to America to find a friendly woman) and you have the makings of one of the best films on relationships in quite a while.


Full Spectrum Staff

Akira (1988) --> One of the great '80s Japanese anime movies, Akira is based on the series of comic books of the same name. The first thing that strikes you about this movie is its visual beauty. The cityscapes of new Tokyo are breathtaking and the colour use is stunning. The whole film is a lesson in how to make animation properly. If it wasn't for its confusing and flawed ending, the film could be considered the best in the history of the genre. Unfortunately it derails when Akira is unleashed. The story, up to that point, was comprehensible covering the life of a motorcycle street gang member who is captured by the military of a post World War III Tokyo in order to develop his psycho-kinetic powers. Akira is the name given to the ultimate force of the universe which might be released through the development of the boy's mental powers and ultimately destroy everything. Even if the ending is confusing, the film belongs with the greats of the genre and is a must-watch for fans of anime.


Scott D. Brown

Fighter (2000) --> Fighter, a documentary by Czech filmmaker Amir Bar-Lev, follows two Holocaust survivors who met in the U.S. after the war and return to their native Czech Republic to follow the escape path taken by one. Jan Weiner, who escaped Czechoslovakia and joined the RAF to fight the Nazis, brings his friend Arnost Lustig to the important places of his past with Bar-Lev's camera recording it all. Lustig joined the Communist party after the war ended and Weiner was interned in a work-camp for suspected spying for the British. These differences show up in the conversation between the two men and we get insight into what war, Nazism, and Communism feels like outside the classroom and in the personal lives of its victims and participants. The film won many awards including: Best Documentary, Newport International Film Festival, Best Documentary, Galway International Film Festival, Special Jury Citation, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and Audience Choice Award, Hamptons International Film Festival.


Full Spectrum Staff

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Complete List of Short Movie Reviews