Island of Lost Souls (1932) ***

Charles Laughton is great in a Lecter-ish sort of way, in a nifty adaptation of the H. G. Wells tale of Dr. Moreau and his experiments in his "House of Pain". Pulls no punches and packs more menace and interesting ideas into 70 minutes than most modern films twice as long.

The Monuments Men (2014) *

Clooney tries to be Spielberg with bad consequences. Supremely arrogant and condescending propaganda.

The Human Stain (2003) **

Watchable but unbelievable due to poor casting. Some fine actors, just really not right for their roles.

Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) ***

Jim Jarmusch's offbeat take on the vampire genre is chock full of gorgeous images and intriguing ideas.

Interview: Jim Jarmusch Talks The Vampiric Charms Of ‘Only Lovers Left Alive’ & Proposing To Muse Tilda Swinton|The Playlist

"That’s interesting that you say that because to me what was most inspiring for me to make this film was the last book by Mark Twain, 'The Diaries of Adam and Eve.' That’s why I named them Adam and Eve, not the direct Biblical thing, but via Mark Twain. That book is very funny, beautiful and kind of slight. It’s just diary entries of Adam and Eve’s vastly different perceptions of the world, via the fact that she’s female and he’s male. It’s a hilarious book and it really inspired me to want to make a film with two characters named Adam and Eve that sort of represented on some level the sun and the moon, but certainly very different perceptions of things."