Top 10 Movies of All Time Review

BECOMING JANE - I'm a HUGE Jane Austen fan so this movie was not only fun, romantic, heart wrenching and entertaining, but filmed beautifully and right up my alley. LOVED it. If you're familier with her work, the story line goes along the same format as much of her writing, but the ending is not quite the same as her standard 'happily ever after' wrap up. Unfortunately, this much is true of her actual life, though there's no telling how much more of the story is set in reality. True to her life or not, it's true to the fashion of her books and brings back the romantic quotiant that's been missing from most films for years.

A ROOM WITH A VIEW - Okay, I love period films, and romance, and visually stunning cinematography set in other countries. And fun plot twists, witty dialog, drama-drama-drama, quirky characters... And this has it all. Merchant & Ivory were fantstic film makers, weaving every elemant of story telling, visionary splendor, music, and period-perfect meticulous detail into a seamless masterpiece. Lucy Honeychurch (played by Helena Bonham-Carter) is an inhibited young woman in early 19th century, in a love triangle with an odd bloke she met on a trip to Venice and an even odder fiancee who's as stiff as his cardboard collar. The outlying charcters aid in the entertainement and in stirring the pot.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING - This is the version featuring Emma Thompson and Kenneth Braunagh from the early 90's (back when they were still married). Line for line, true to the original written version, there are so many ups and downs in this story, you feel like you're on the preverbial emotional roller coaster. This was possibly Kate Beckinsell's first big break as Hero, the last time I can remember seeing Michael Keaton on film, as well as support from Denzel Washington, Keanu Reeves, and Robert Sean Leonard (of Dead Poets Society fame). Can't go wrong seeing these boys in tight leathers at their prime. The usual Shakespearian twists and brutal romance.

TAMING OF THE SHREW - The BBC updated version starring Shirley Henderson and Rufus Sewell is hysterical and very strangely sweet. He's a nut job and she's a... well, we'll stick with shrew. She's running for public office (Prime Minister, I believe) and is so world reknowned to be horrifically hateful, her advisers think marriage may help to soften the image. He's flat broke and unable to inherit his Earl-titled family legacy until he's married. But he marries her for love and, though she's not without her tendancies of affection under the surface, she's too hard to show anything but disdain and superiority. So he has no choice but to break her. Oddly, what would typically have turned my stomach in the name of male domination comes across completely diferent, even endearing. The characters are so incrediblly peculiar, you just love them in the long run.

SENSE AND SENSIBILITY - As I said, I love Jane Austen and this is probably the best as far as what's been made into a movie (though I also recommend the A&E version of Pride & Prejudice with Colin Firth and Mansfield Park with Johnny Lee Miller--and if you're a true Austen fan, Persuasion also from A&E, but not the BBC version). This film was a pet project of Emma Thompson who played the sensible oldest sister, and provided a breakout role for Kate Winslet as the romance obsessed Maryann. Also featuring Hugh Grant and Alan Richman, the story follows 2 sisters in their love lives (and often lack-thereof). It closely patterns the rise and falls of the loves and fortunes in the lives of the Jane Austen herself and her sister Cassandra.

--Of course Gone With the Wind is the old tried and true, but these are the ones you aren't gonna see on TV twice a year. And leaves you with the warm fuzzies. All are on DVD.