'The Godfather'

The book is a lot like the film(s). Both are really well done -- simplistic and mesmerizing. Both are character driven and Mario Puzo is excellent at giving his characters such vivacious personalities and attitudes.

All is OK except for Puzo's loyalty to the secondary characters like Johnny Fontane, Lucy and Jules. In fact, the Las Vegas stuff should've had more Fredo injected into it and a lot less of those three.

And the vaginal reconstructive surgery was entirely unnecessary.

Yeah, that's one thing Coppola omitted from his film, and he was better off.

'Gimme Shelter'

Rock and roll fans have been terribly mislead. We've fallen victim to the assumption that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were the two coolest Rolling Stones. Jagger I'll give you. But Richards? Please. He was a cartoon character, all hype and little payoff.

The Rolling Stones cool rankings:

1. Brian Jones

2. Charlie Watts

3. Mick Jagger

4. Mick Taylor

5. Keith Richards

6. Ron Wood

7. Bill Wyman

Watts is especially interesting to watch. In fact, it's kind of his and Jagger's film. And Watts was always the quiet one, but it's clear now that he's one of the coolest. And he's also a really good drummer, which is evident in the concert footage.

Wyman's bassline in "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" is glorious.

Jagger is just great. He is perpetually jerking off the crowd trying to get them off one at a time and only stops when the show's over. This is epitomized in the footage of Ike and Tina Turner when the latter is literally stroking the microphone like it's a phallus.

The film also chronicles the death rattle of the hippie era, the 1960s: Altamont. They're a very interesting, over stereotyped subset of people. Clearly, they didn't have their shit together. Not that a ton of people did in the 1960s, but just saying.

'The Stranger'

Orson Welles' mustache should've been nominated for an Oscar.

It's an interesting 15 minutes in the middle of the film when everything evolves around the dog, Red.

In it, the brother asks Edward G. Robinson's character what possible laws were broken for murdering the poor dog. He states further that it's just as bad as killing a human.

At this point in the film, the brother knows Robinson's suspicion's of Welles' character of being a Nazi, one of the masterminds behind the destruction of Europe's Jewish population.

But certainly killing a dog should be equated to killing a person. Say six million puppies compared to six million Jews. Maybe a comment on the true detachment of the Americans during World War II and the Holocaust.

The wife was certainly a dumb slut.

'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'

This is a really thought-provoking, creative film.

I just didn't like the casting. Clearly, it doesn't take that much away from the whole, but subtracts some. Jim Carrey looks a billion years old. And he comes off as so unbalanced in a dramatic role. Plus, Elijah Wood and Kirsten Dunst can come off as so stale and uninviting.

'In the Heat of the Night'

This is a really great film. Actingwise, it's pretty dated. Some of the ways these people interact with each other you can tell it was made 40 years ago.

Then again, it's fresh and vibrant. There are some shots (really tight close-ups on items, or even the hands of Tibbs when he's inspecting the body) that look so good, so modern. I mean, you could just see those 15-second shots and think the film could've been made in 1999.

I also enjoy it when I see a film set in the 1960s (or 1970s, or whenever) actually shot in the same decade. It's shocking how modern filmmaking can not recreate well a modern bygone era. The clothes and hair look like Halloween costumes.

It's just so obvious that a film shot in 2002 and set in the 1960s actually didn't happen in the 1960s because nobody looked that fake.

'Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmakers Apocalypse'

I'm not a huge fan of the director's commentaries, notes, scripts and all the peripheral junk that comes along with a film.

However, if they decided to accompany the big films and big directors (Coppola, Scorsese, Lucas, Polanski, Forman, Coen Bros., et al.) with hour-and-a-half documentaries about making a film, then I'm all eyes and ears.

The virtually self-imposed torment Francis Ford Coppola heaped himself is tremendous. The religion of film making and the amount of effort and tediousness they place on the script, actors and everything else in the film is tremendous and often jaw-dropping.

It was fascinating seeing these interviews (past and present) and these people's points of view in regards to something they felt very strongly about.

'The Velvet Underground'

When I pondered the Grateful Dead and their album "American Beauty" for this album, I brought up the point that they were considered some hippie jam band when I really consider them a country band.

Conversely, the Velvet Underground are similar animals. They tend to get groups in weirdo, artsy-fartsy pop-rock, taking drugs with Andy Warhol. A real New York band.

Not that they were prone to the artsy-fartsy track here or there, but in reality they were pretty ordinary (ordinary great, not ordinary ordinary). They could've been from Omaha, Austin or Tacoma. Many of their tracks are three chords, two verses and a chorus. It could be argued they're more rock and roll than Led Zeppelin (and entirely more rock and roll than Yes).