What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) - ★★★★

Director: Lasse Hallstrom
Writers: Peter Hedges
Stars: Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Juliette Lewis, Darlene Cates, Mary Steenburgen, Laura Harrington, Mary Kate Schellhardt, Kevin Tighe, John C. Reilly, Crispin Glover

I loved What's Eating Gilbert Grape. Watching the lives of these people unfold was both humbling and entertaining. It contains what is arguably Leonardo DiCaprio's greatest performance to date. More importantly, it's just a magnificently crafted film. The cinematography and music tells a story in itself and adds an extra layer of understanding to the characters. At times I felt they could have toned down the cheesiness of certain scenes, and other times I felt overcome with emotion. My special shout out goes to Darlene Cates who played Mama Grape. Her performance, her character, and Leonardo DiCaprio truly raise the film to greatness.

Farewell My Concubine (1993) – ★★★★★

Director: Kaige Chen
Writers: Bik-Wa Lei, Pik Wah Li (Novel and Screenplay)
Stars: Leslie Cheung, Fengyi Zhang, Li Gong, Zhi Yin, Hailong Zhao

Farewell my Concubine is undoubtedly one of the greatest movies ever made. It spans throughout 5 decades of chinese history, and follows one of the most interesting characters I’ve ever seen. It’s costumes are spectacular and the cinematography is brilliant. What makes this one of the greatest movies ever made is the acting. For me, there were no actors in this movie, only the characters. It is a class of acting that you seldom see in Western cinema. If you won’t watch the film on the heart-wrenching story alone, then watch it for one of the greatest performances of all time by Leslie Cheung.

This is the story of two men, Douzi (Leslie Cheung) and Shitou (Fengyi Zhang), who met as apprentices in the Peking Opera, and remained in contact for over 50 years. Both of them grew up to star in the opera ’Farewell My Concubine,’ where Douzi played the Concubine and Shitou played the King of Chu.

Over the years we see the era of the Warlords (1920s), the Japanese invasion (mid 1940s), the retaking of China by the nationalists (late 1940s), and then the communist era of Mao Zedong. This epic story spans all the way to 1977, and not once does the excitement or attachment to the story falter.

Leslie Cheung truly embodied this character and brought it to life. It was all in his eyes, every emotion that you could imagine. The anger, frustration, terror, love, and heartbreak all came across plainly on his face. There hasn’t been a performance that moved me this much in a long time. From losing the man he loves to overcoming an opium addiction, every single movement, word, and expression was perfect.

Li Gong also gave a breathtaking performance as a former prostitute and the wife of Shitou. Honestly, there is nothing this woman can’t do. She’s able to display such strength, and such fragility, all wrapped up into one character. Together, Gong and Cheung have brilliant chemistry as two ‘women’ who want the same man.

There is plenty of brutality in this film, mixed with plenty of tenderness. It’s not completely tragic, for there is a lot of hope in these characters. You cannot describe this film with a genre or a word. It’s more than a period drama, or a romance, or a tragedy.

These characters are interesting enough from a psychological perspective alone. If there’s one thing I love about Farewell My Concubine, it’s that it begs you to discuss it afterwards. You're left to connect the dots when it comes to motives, feelings, and symbolism.

I was thrilled from start to finish with this masterful film. It truly is one of the greatest movies ever made. Schindler’s List may have won Best Picture at the Academy Awards during the same year, but for me this is a film worthy of that title. There’s nothing I could fault about Farewell My Concubine. I recommend this movie to anyone who is interested in history and psychology

Jurassic Park (1993) - ★★★★

Director: Steven Spielberg
Writers: Michael Crichton
Stars: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Bob Peck, Samuel L. Jackson, Wayne Knight

This movie is so bad in many aspects, but it's just incredible in many others. Part of me wants to rate it lowly for its shortcomings, but I just can't do it. Jurassic Park is one of those films that I will always love.

Multi-millionaire John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) created a theme park filled with dinosaurs by cloning them from the dna found in mosquitos. He enlists three scientists, Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill), Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), and Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), to see the park and give their scientific opinion in favor of the park. However, things go horribly wrong when the man in charge of running the the parks computer systems, (Wayne Knight), shuts down the power that is keeping the dinosaurs away from the humans. The scientists and Hammond's grandchildren are constantly fighting for survival as they encounter Velociraptors, T-rex's and other deadly dinosaurs thought extinct.

The dialogue throughout the film was pretty laughable. I believe that this film was aimed for children, yet I couldn't imagine many young children enjoying Jurassic Park. Unless they are big fans of dinosaurs, many would be extremely scared. When my 8 year old sister saw this film in cinemas, she couldn't look at the movie. She sat in her seat with her back to the movie until it was over. That's one of the reasons I believe this film didn't work properly, because it was targeted for children, yet doesn't fully satisfy children or adults.

Almost all of the characters were frustratingly annoying. In particular, Hammond's grandchildren. These two were also there so that children can relate to the film a bit more. All they did was take away from the incredible movie. They were always either doing something stupid or saying something stupid. I understand that their fear makes the movie more realistic, but there was too much screaming. I don't know about you, but they were starting to take the joy of the film away for me.

The main problem I have is that the action sequences took away from the awe-inspiring vision of the dinosaurs themselves. I would much rather have seen a film full of dinosaurs re-created the way Spielberg has done so masterfully. I loved the sequence where we first see the dinosaurs, it was beautiful. It meshed so well with one of the greatest movie themes of all time by John Williams. I was just blown away. There were only two of these relaxing and beautiful scenes though, while the rest of the film was action and comedy, which just degrades this masterpiece of cinema.

With all of these negatives, there were just as many positives. The fact that these dinosaurs looks so realistic sucked me right into the atmosphere. This film did something many thought impossible, and that was show us what dinosaurs looked like. I must have said "wow" about 10 times throughout the movie. Richard Attenborough was the star of the film in my opinion. His acting was masterful as always, and I was genuinely sad for him when everything went wrong.

There's so much beauty and wonder in this movie that I ended up clapping when it was finished. I have never seen a film like it, and probably never will again. No matter how bad the dialogue and acting were, Spielberg more than made up for it with the cinematography and realistic recreation of dinosaurs. I love this film, which is why it deserves a high rating.

The Secret Garden (1993) - ★★★★½

Director: Agnieszka Holland
Writers: Frances Hodgson Burnett (Novel), Caroline Thompson (Screenplay)
Stars: Kate Maberly, Heydon Prowse, Andrew Knott, Maggie Smith, Laura Crossley, John Lynch.

The Secret Garden in my opinion is one of the best childrens movies of all time. One of the most exciting things about being a child is discovering new and unfamiliar places and people, which this film shows beautifully. I have to say that I've loved this film since I was a child, and although it strays quite a bit from the book, the adaptation is extremely well done.

Mary Lennox (Kate Maberly) is a young girl that was brought up in India by a neglectful mother that paid no attention to her, and a father that was never home. She grew up resentful, bitter and hardly ever smiled. She even learned to stop crying. After an accident kills her parents, she is sent to England to live with her uncle, Lord Archibald Craven (John Lynch), a man caught in despair over the death of his wife (her aunt).

They live in a gloriously stunning old mansion called Misselthwaite, where the unkind and strict Mrs. Medlock (Maggie Smith) runs the household. After exploring the grounds of Misselthwaite, Mary discovers a door hidden behind a hedge that leads to a secret garden filled with unbloomed plants, statues and everything nice that would appeal to a child. It is here that she makes friends with a young boy named Dickin (Andrew Knott), who helps her plant new flowers and fix the garden up to make it perfect.

Throughout the film you hear a childs wailing echo through the mansions halls, which Mary later finds out is her sickly cousin Colin, a bedbound boy who has been told all his life that he has a lump on his back and a sickness that will surely kill him before he becomes an adult. Mary befriends Colin and helps him get better by showing him that he's not sick and opening up the world to him through telling stories and showing him the garden.

This is a really magical movie. Set around the moors, the cinematography in this film leaves me with a wide grin for it is truly beautiful to see. What helps is the music that accompanies these scenes, which I believe is one of the best movie themes there is. Maberly was amazing as Mary, somehow acting so adult when she is only a child actor. I loved her, I hated her, but the main thing is that she made me feel things everytime she was on the screen.

The same goes for Prowse, who made Colin annoying, entertaining and ignorant to the world around him. Maggie Smith was incredible as Mrs. Medlock. You hated her with such a passion because of how mean she was to Mary, but also came to understand later in the film that she was under a lot of pressure to help Colin get better. My favorite person in the whole movie was a character named Martha (Laura Crossley). She was hilarious and cute as the handmaiden to Mary, really providing so much entertainment and charm to the film.

The story is simple but effective, keeping me interested all the way through. There is little I can fault with this film, but so much to praise! If you have kids, I highly suggest you let them watch The Secret Garden. It's really magical for young people. I should know, I was just a child when I first saw it.