Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

perotin_notre_dame Dumbest show I ever saw, and that inludes such dogs as My Mother the Car, Mr. Ed., Rosemary's Baby, The Collector, Last Tango in Paris, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolff.

aramis-112-804880 "Twin Peaks" was the strangest prime-time soap opera of all time. Its die-hard fans (including me) were fascinated by the residents of this town in the northwestern corner of the U.S.A. A re-viewing nearly thirty years on show parts of it still stand up, some parts work if you push them, and parts are woefully inadequate.Touted at its 1990 premiere as the groundbreaking show of the 1990s (two months into that decade). Yet it seems quaint even for those days, since no one in the show has a cell phone (Agent Cooper talks on a huge voice recorder that might be mistaken for one). No one has heard of DVDs or the Internet. Office workers and people at home almost all use typewriters. Instead of being the groundbreaking 1990s show it closed the door on all that had come before; as Debussy said of Wagner, "Twin Peaks" was a glorious sunset mistaken for a dawn.The series' primary conceit, the murder of Laura Palmer, is really a clothesline to hang out all Twin Peaks' washing of the town of Twin Peaks. Laura herself is an impossible dynamo. A beautiful, strong-willed Prom queen, she was a full-time high school student working at a perfume counter at a Department Store; on the side she helped with an immigrant improve her English, worked with an adult who had the mind of the child, and organized and worker in the local "Meals on Wheels" program. She was balancing two boyfriends (in a simple role-reversal, a rebellious teen who was captain of the football team, and on the other side an almost too-sensitive biker). Laura was also a cocaine addict, she worked with an immigrant to improve her English, worked with an adult with the mind of a child, and was a prostitute in a Canadian bordello. Talk about time management! These details were given out in dribs and drabs, so when the show ran it was easy to miss their collective ramifications, which was part of the series' macabre humor.Laura Palmer's murder was the tightrope of the main storyline, and its unfolding is just as powerful today (unlike "Who shot J.R.?") Yet the series was really about the town and its soap-opera denizens, with the creators' twisted, often grisly, humor paramount. And here's where the series flags.Laura Palmer's murder sparked "Twin Peaks" but that story could, like chewing gum, be stretched out only so long. And while it had several storylines in place, including some that were of great moment (the vanishing of Major Briggs, the defrocking of Agent Cooper, etc) the series had not started anything nearly with the intrigue of Laura Palmer's murder. Nevertheless, it ground on, throwing hopeful straws in the wind, until only a few "TP" lunatics like me remained in its dwindling audience.The worst: Most of the women in Twin Peaks are ravishingly lovely, but the writers make only the guys bizarre. It's like they lacked the guts to make lovely women weird. Only weird-looking women were allowed to be weird (like the Log Lady; or Nadine, she of the eye patch, whose post-suicide-attempt story is ridiculous and embarrassing. The there's the silly string about who is the father of Lucy's baby. Lucy and Andy are characters we've come to care about, but the show's darker comedy makes it all look facile. Then there's the need for Lynch and his acolyte directors to focus on the disgusting things in life, like drizzling people or folks with cake smeared on their faces, or boys in tuxedos holding creamed corn in cupped hands. Yuck. Repulsiveness just for the sake of it.The best: Lynch stalwart Kyle McLachlan's invariably cheerful Agent Dale Cooper. Both incisive and very funny, in these days when the FBI has spies infiltrating the camps of presidential candidates they don't want elected, it's nice to see an idealized agent who upholds honor and good old American decency, though I suspect Lynch and Frost were being sarcastic about him. Michael Ontkean's sheriff is, like Andy Taylor before him, a fine anchor in a silly town. SPOILERS: And then there are the bizarre touches that still work to evoke a giggle. Like Waldo's assassination (if you don't know Waldo I'll only say he's a key witness to a murder plot). Major Briggs' touching yet hilarious pontificating still resonates. And there's the anti-Scooby-Doo theme that when real teens involve themselves in serious investigations, serious consequences occur (as with Audrey at Jack's, and the painful betrayal of Harold Smith).Despite having much going for it, "TP" started with a bang but devolved into a curiosity of diminishing returns. Disclaimer: My home town had about a hundredth of Twin Peaks' 50,000-odd residents (very odd, some of them) so I bring a different perspective to it than city slickers who think anyone who doesn't want to live in NYC or LA is ipso facto nuts. Parts of the small town ambience ring true but most is hokum. And I grew up on property with 40 acres of woods, so to me the woods is a place of happiness and wonder rather than dark mystery and hidden threat. It's the dwellers of small dens in valleys of glass and concrete where the sunlight rarely shines, who are strange and unnatural to me. But "TP" kept me enthralled anyway during it's first run, though parts of it bore me now and I fast-forward through some storylines.

chahutmaenad Season one is easily one of TV's greatest triumphs, and season two starts off promising but ultimately lands short, with an amazing ending to the season at least. Still a must see, I also highly recommend watching "the return" aka "season 3" of the show.

wladisha It is difficult to rate the entire series fairly because, well, it's almost like Season 1 and Season 2 (and 3) were made by completely different people.When I was eight years old (this was 1994), our TV programme aired Twin Peaks reruns. I can't really remember the first season much (it was the only one aired), but I remember having liked it and finding it interesting, in a way that a child can see the value in something without completely understanding it. I remember my mother saying to me how the first season of the show was amazing, but I shouldn't be bothered with the rest.Fast forward some two decades (about 8-10 years ago from now), I remember the show and decide to finally watch it as an adult, being a big film and TV buff. Season 1 and 2, respectively. My conclusion:Season 1 is awesome. It's funny, charming, mad and mysterious at the same time. It has a real story, a real murder in a real town populated by real people who were just oh so slightly insane and over the top. The town itself is a living thing, a character of its own. The season is grounded in reality, but sparkled with a touch of crazy, and full of fun and innocence. 99% of what people remember fondly and lovingly about Twin Peaks today, comes from this season. Because it really is that good.Season 2 is bad. Immediately (and I do mean in the first five minutes) you realize the tone of the show is changed. There is no quirkiness anymore, there is no emotion. The characters don't live their own lives anymore, instead they have become caricatures of themselves, living only to be quirky because the writers demand it so. Everything is more serious and dark and broody. There is no actual mystery anymore, just plot devices. Innocence lost, and nowhere to be seen again. Yes, this season revealed Laura's murderer, but that felt forced - season 1 used Laura Palmer only as a focus, a catalyst; it never needed to actually reveal the killer. And when this one did... meh.Season 3 is... well, see for your self. I gave up three episodes in.In short, please watch at least the first season. It really is wonderful