It's as if Welles thinks he's always doing Citizen Kane -- don't get me started. You don't have to emote, okay, you have to deliver. The words carry enough drama all by themselves, all right? Yet one more reason why Welles will never make either my favorite actor or my favorite director lists.

It's impossible to take stories like this very seriously, and in the wrong hands, that mistake is always, inevitably, made. But the combined playfulness of the folks who worked to bring this all together deserves much praise. I tell you, if the upward trend continues, HB III should be awesome. Also, please note, you really do not have to have seen HB I to enjoy this one.

The fact that this is based on Louis Malle's own experience living under Hilter's reign of terror gives this particular film a good deal more power than your average Nazi nightmare narrative. And power is what this film is all about. It's visually powerful, first and foremost, and the story is overwhelmingly heartbreaking. The acting is excellent, especially with the children chosen.

I've read and seen more than my fair share of stories about the Holocaust, and this one ranks as one of the best. This is a film that must be seen. We must never forget one of the most tragic chapters in human history.

On the other hand, I'm always very much aware of the one-sidedness of his argument, regardless of the fact that I am usually in total agreement with what he is saying about, say, healthcare in this instance. I'm also always a little skeptical about his offer of solutions to a given problem, be it gun control or what have you. To say that the solution is "obvious" is not my idea of a well-formed argument -- even if I agree that the solution is obvious.

I would advise anyone, even "members of the choir" like myself, to view Moore's work with a medium to large sized grain of proverbial salt. He is a master of making strong emotional arguments, but every issue on the magnitude of, say, healthcare reform in the US, has many, many sides, and workable solutions may not be as obvious as Moore may make you believe they appear to be.

I am, up front, a Christian, but I find the assault on Christianity to be pretty harmless, although moderately interesting.

What I don't see the critics talking about nearly as much, is the sexual perversity of the movie, which strikes a much louder chord with audiences of any time, I'm guessing. From the bizarre desire of an uncle for his niece, and the strange machinations to which he resorts in order to seduce her, to the menage a trois ending, I'd have to say if there's anything that's going to "entertain" a viewer today, this would be more likely. That one image of the maid biting the cousin's hand is surely as provocative, from a cinematic viewpoint, as any other image in the film

Sadly, the revolutionary quality of this film is lost on someone who may have read too many books and seen too many movies over the course of a lifetime.

Up to the point of the murder, Gelsomina is what I would call innocent. The word "sophisticated" used to mean something quite unlike what it means today. Nowadays, when we say someone is sophisticated, we are generally being complimentary. We mean that this person is quite worldly wise. Originally, however, if you were labeled sophisticated, the connotation was not flattering. If you were called sophisticated, it meant that you were viewed as, roughly, being "ruined by the world." Your innocence was far behind you. You were damaged goods, and irreparably so.

So up to the point where Quinn murders Basehart, Gelsomina is innocent in the ways of the world, lacking in life experiences which disabuse us of our innocence. But from that point on she is ruined by the real world, sophisticated in the truest sense of the word, irreparably damaged by that experience. It is her psychic state post-murder that might -- might -- be termed "addled."

Quinn is great in this one, and Basehart is astonishing. If you only ever see one Fellini, flixsters, this is the one I'd strongly recommend.

These lines, the opening of the final stanza of John Keats' The Eve of St. Agnes, come to mind as the long run of Ginger and Fred comes to an end. It's their escape into the realm of legend.

Heartbreaking. Although they would reunite through a twist of fate a decade later, this was the last intentional pairing of Rogers and Astaire, the end of their nine film run into cinematic history.

Perhaps because this tragic story is based on the real lives of Vernon and Irene Castle, and, of course, the untimely death of Vernon Castle, that story and the end of the Rogers and Astaire dynasty combine for an even sadder double impact. To see them, in the end, dancing off into the distance in Ginger's/Irene's imagination heightens the melancholy of the moment. The characters and the actors are gone, ay ages long ago. The greatest dancing duo in movie history -- then, now, and forever.

Do we at all celebrate Zamachowski's success? Do we at all pity Delpy her fate? Interesting to ponder.

One thing I'm more and more sure of in my declining years: insanity can meet up with you just around the next corner, and it may already be walking hand-in-hand with you as you make that turn.

I can't believe I ate the whole thing. I can't believe I ate the whole thing.

No? Well, it's an old TV ad. The reason I bring it up? I can't believe I watched the whole thing.

Okay, correct me if I'm wrong. Really. Please do. We're to believe that SLJ is "damaged" to the point of doing -- NO spoiler alert -- what he does because his deceased wife -- SPOILER ALERT -- was, in his mind, cheating on him with a "white" man? Please . . .

And it's one thing to make fun of the Rodney King situation -- which they un-freakin-believably do in this movie. But it's a whole other thing to write an incredibly BAD script revolving around that kind of problem. Geez this is ugly. And Will Smith co-produced this? Inconceivable.

You know what, flixster friends? I don't blame SLJ's character for doing what he does. Not really. This couple is one irritating pair. I care about the kids, but I'd skip this one for not giving a rip about anyone else unlucky enough to be trapped in this lame project.