Beau Geste (1939)

Beau Geste (1939)

[7] Three orphans grow up together as brothers under the care of a kindly benefactor. When they're old enough, they join the Foreign Legion, but their dreams of adventure are dashed when a sinister sergeant turns their first outpost into…
The Story of G.I. Joe (1945)

The Story of G.I. Joe (1945)

[7] This isn't the romanticized WWII of modern cinema, it's probably closer to the real thing. The Story of G.I. Joe is based on print journalist Ernie Pyle's interviews with soldiers in the field. Pyle was in the foxholes with…
The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981)

The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981)

[4] Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons star in dual roles, as Victorian lovers and the actors portraying them in a film production. The parallel storylines are a tedious gimmick. We're told half way through the movie that in one story,…
Contact (1997)

Contact (1997)

[8] Contact is a message-driven movie that may be too esoteric for a lot of mainstream moviegoers. It's a character-driven drama with only a few moments of your typical blockbuster spectacle -- but I applaud the movie for daring to…
Platoon (1986)

Platoon (1986)

[8] Oliver Stone's Platoon was one of the first major motion pictures to deal with the Vietnam war. Charlie Sheen stars as an infantry volunteer who finds himself in a moral quandry, torn between two sergeants of differing philosophies. Tom…
The Box (2009)

The Box (2009)

[7] The Box is weird, anachronistic, and indulgent, but I'd be lying to say I didn't dig it. This is the third film from writer/director Richard Kelly, who created a cult phenomenon with Donnie Darko, but then flopped big time…
Footloose (1984)

Footloose (1984)

[8] At first sight, you might mistake Footloose for just another teen rebellion movie, but Herbert Ross' (Steel Magnolias) sensitive direction and committed performances from John Lithgow and Dianne Wiest help the film transcend its genre. The story about a town…
The Quiet American (2002)

The Quiet American (2002)

[6] Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser vie for the affection of a beautiful Vietnamese woman against the backdrop of the French-Indochina War. Philip Noyce (Dead Calm, Patriot Games) is the second director to bring Graham Greene's novel to the screen…
Paper Heart (2009)

Paper Heart (2009)

[4] A maudlin pseudo-documentary about a socially awkward girl's quest for true love. Um, gag? Charlyne Yi, adorable in her weird Knocked Up cameo, is tediously boring here. The concept for this movie is confounding -- part of it is…
Empire Records (1995)

Empire Records (1995)

[6] A bunch of teenagers rally to save their music store from being taken over by a corporate chain. Empire Records takes place almost entirely inside its namesake and features an ensemble of talented young actors, including Liv Tyler, Robin…