Flyerplesys Perfectly adorable

Brightlyme i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Christopher T. Chase Not a lot of people will remember the somewhat clunky thriller EYES OF LAURA MARS from 1978. Laura Mars was a fashion photographer who recreated scenes of death and mayhem to show off the latest fashions. Because of this, she suddenly develops a psychic link with a serial killer through whose eyes she can "see" as he stalks and murders his victims. CHOCOLATE, a Mick Garris entry into the MASTERS OF HORROR lineup, gives the LAURA MARS story a makeover, with E.T.'s Henry Thomas playing the unwilling 'witness' this time around.Thomas plays Jamie, a chemist who creates new flavors and smells for major food companies along with his quirky co-worker and sidekick, Wally (a completed squandered Matt Frewer.) One day, while working on a project involving chocolate, the flavor and smell transport him without warning into the consciousness of a young woman. Everything she sees and feels, he does, and that includes dining, lovemaking...and murder.In spite of what he knows about this cold-blooded bitch, Jamie falls harder for her every time they connect, as the episodes all but tear apart his personal life. Soon, he has nothing left to do but track down this "mystery woman" - with the usual harrowing circumstances surrounding falling in love with someone you should have nothing to do with.I wish I could say that the story plays as well as it sounds, but it doesn't, which is unfortunate considering that Garris, who is also one of the better adapters of Stephen King material, also created the MASTERS OF HORROR series. If anybody should be "bringing it" to show how a great episode should be done, it's Garris. But CHOCOLATE, though an interesting premise, falls short in more than a few ways.MOH episodes are only an hour long each, and shot with a limited budget on roughly a ten-day schedule, so we can give Mick some of the benefit of the doubt. But the main problem lies, as always, with the way the characters are written. Though Matt Frewer gives one of his patented, reliably quirky performances, his Wally really has no purpose to the story, except to 'freak out' during one of Jamie's episodes. As much as I like Frewer, and obviously Garris does, too, his presence breaks one of the Writing Commandments: never have a character who doesn't serve some kind of purpose to drive the story forward, even if he or she is only a "McGuffin." The time spent with Wally could've easily gone to doing more to enrich the story's suspense.Then to make matters worse, is it me, or is every woman that Jamie is involved with, including his ex-wife, a self-serving bitch? Jamie's "episodes" sometimes seem like seizures, and at a crucial point in the story when he has one, both a young lovely he's been seeing and his ex-wife act as if he PEED WITH THE TOILET SEAT DOWN. Movies are not reality, I understand that. But if this were the reactions of two real people, I would have to question why they're still part of my life.Was that one of the points that Garris was trying to make? I don't know, but it took a lot of the starch out of the story for me. Not to mention that as gorgeous as the actresses involved are (and yes, there is an ample amount of T & A), their acting wasn't much to write home about. Good thing Thomas carries most of the weight on his slender but capable shoulders.This wasn't by far the worst of the MOH episodes, (for me, personally, HAECKEL'S TALE wins that dubious honor), but I would recommend CHOCOLATE with strong reservations. (See my favorites, HOMECOMING, DEER WOMAN or PICK ME UP instead.)

Witchfinder General 666 I have become a big fan of the "Masters Of Horror" series, which any fan of the Horror genre should give a try. The series, which, among others contains episodes directed by Dario Argento, John Carpenter and Takashi Miike, was created by Mick Garris, who had the idea for this great show. "Chocolate", the fifth episode of the first season, and Garris' first contribution to the series as a director, however, sadly disappoints. The only reason to call Garris a 'Master Of Horror' is his idea for the MoH series anyway, since he has never written nor directed any essential Horror film. It is understandable that the man who had the idea for the entire series would also want to direct an episode, however. And "Chocolate" is not necessarily bad, but it is by far my least favorite episode of the MoH series so far, just too little Horror and too much boredom and beating around the bush, as far as I am considered.Possible Minor SPOILERS! Jamie (Henry Thomas), a recently divorced guy who works in a laboratory developing flavors for the food industry, suddenly starts having strange visions. At first he thinks it's the chemicals at work, but he soon suspects he's seeing through somebody else's eyes sometimes. He find's out that his visions show him the life of a beautiful young woman he has never met before, he becomes obsessed with her..."Chocolate" has some interesting moments, but over all it is more of a Drama then it is horror - and it is not a good Drama. The episode is almost suspense-less, and apart from the beautiful female cast and a (little) bit of weirdness in a few parts, it is not really worthwhile. The acting is not bad, and Jamie's visions have some style and originality, but over all the episode disappoints. Still worth watching if you plan to see the entire series (such as I do), but out of all the episodes I've seen so far (about 15, some from the first season, some from the second) "Chocolate" is the least interesting.

tomcon22 In fact, now that I think of it, I find anything directed by Garris to be very boring. This episode starts out with an interesting premise, and then goes nowhere with it. Maybe Garris didn't realize he only had one hour to tell this story! This episode, in typical Garris fashion, seems to have been made by robots. There is nothing exciting about it. It grabs you at the beginning, then slowly lets go, amounting to nothing. I kept looking at the clock, wondering when something was going to happen to forward the story and heighten my interest. No such luck. I don't understand why Mick Garris is depicted as a horror veteran when he has failed to create anything memorable in any of his series or movies,(at least the 6 or so that I have seen).So far, from I've seen, my favorite from this series has been "Dreams in the Witch-House," directed by Stuart Gordon who was behind "Re-Animator." Check it out!

Jonny_Numb I just submitted a comment for the "Masters of Horror" episode 'Incident on and Off a Mountain Road,' in which I claimed that the series' central problem was restricting filmmakers to 60-minute TV restraints. However, to rebut some of the negative comments on "Chocolate" (by the way, how on EARTH can you call Eli Roth a 'master' of ANYTHING?), I will also say that the series deserves a bit of leeway--in comparison to the directors' feature films, of course these TV episodes are going to come up short by default, and shouldn't be assessed with the criteria one attaches to a film. Thus far, I have found each entry (released to DVD) passable, stylish entertainment that carries the signature of each director. "Chocolate," from series creator Mick Garris, is no exception; at this point, it's the best entry I've seen, perhaps because Garris is more familiar with the parameters of television. His story follows a divorced, artificial-flavoring creator named Jamie (Henry Thomas), who begins to have visions of a mysterious femme fatale; the episode follows his quest to locate the woman, who has committed murder and might not be altogether right in the head. While the thriller aspect is strong (even inspiring some comparisons to 2005's 'remote viewing' tale, "Suspect Zero"), Garris brings romantic as well as darkly humorous elements to the mix. Even if the denouement leaves a bit to be desired, "Chocolate" is a strong entry nonetheless.6.5 out of 10