TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME [1992]

Cryptically serving as both a prequel and a sequel to the short-lived cult-hit television series, director David Lynch's Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me takes the viewer down a darker road than puzzled audiences expected.
By chronicling the final seven days of Laura Palmer's life (beautifully led by Sheryl Lee), the film didn't have a whole lot of reason to visit the comical quirkiness of damned fine coffee and heavenly cherry pie, which served as key elements as to why mainstream viewers loved the series in the first place.
Heavily weighing in on themes of incest, addiction, psychological abuse and other unpleasant topics the film manages to make sense of some of more baffling moments in the television series in such an oblique manner it might go over your head upon first glance.
More psychological thriller than oddball soap opera, FWWM is on my short list of films I've seen well over 20 times because it's a near-perfect exquisitely sinister mind-twister.

4 toe-heads out of 5

THE LION KING [1994]

Disney's take on William Shakespeare's Hamlet comes in the form of singing jungle animals in the beautifully animated The Lion King.
It's about a young lion cub who must reclaim his throne as the King, after his father is murdered by his manipulative uncle and a pack of ravaging hyenas.
Dig a little deeper and you find a tale of love, hope and the search for one's identity.  The expressively lush animation shines bright and keeps one's eyes glued to the screen from beginning to end.  Most of the voicework is pretty dull, with the exception of Jeremy Irons and Nathan Lane who both steal each scene they're in.  While the songs might be a bit much here and there, they're not overly offensive.  I couldn't help but pick apart Disney's idea of social hierarchy and how it treats brawn over brains, rich over poor and how we should just accept what we're born into.
Still, as an piece of animation, I couldn't help but be in awe of the dedication put into crafting it into what it is.

4 circles of life out of 5