Florent Siri's “HOSTAGE”

This surprisingly intelligent and well made hostage drama is another high quality vehicle for Bruce Willis (Tears of the Sun, Hart's War, Sin City) in which he demonstrates again his ability to put behind his earlier "Anybody else want to negotiate?" persona.

Joel Schumacher's “THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA”

I’ve never been a fan of this musical. The songs are repetitive and dull, the story is silly, and the overriding themes remind me of the covers of those paperback romance novels you see on sale in supermarkets. But I loved the movie, even though the three points I made above are painfully obvious. So why did I like it?

Jim Jarmusch's “MYSTERY TRAIN”

This 1989 movie tells three stories about people in Memphis whose lives almost intersect based on their staying one night in the same seedy hotel. The first story is about a young Japanese couple, visiting Memphis by train, who are paying homage to the roots of rock and roll. The young woman reveres Elvis while the young man reveres Carl Perkins.