Dead Man (1995)

An American western directed by Jim Jarmusch, starring Johnny Depp, Lance Henriksen, Crispin Glover, Iggy Pop, Billy Bob Thornton, Jared Harris, Gabriel Byrne, John Hurt, Alfred Molina and Robert Mitchum.
An urban man goes to a rural town where he was promised a job, only to be denied. He spends the night with a woman whose husband comes home in the morning. A gunfight ensues and they are all shot. The urban man then steals a horse and wanders around the wilderness with a Native American called Nobody. The husband's father has meanwhile sent bounty hunters and ordered wanted posters to be posted.
This was my second time watching this and the ending left me wondering about when the main character dies. The video was all in black and white and the only thing that puzzled me slightly was the main character's POV without glasses was still in sharp focus. The plot was a little sparse, but even the minor characters were memorable. I don't write here to drag this out into forced over-analysis. I rate it adequate. You should really watch other Jim Jarmusch films.

House series (1986 - 1992)

An American horror produced by Sean S. Cunningham, starring William Katt.
1: A writer moves into his aunt's house where his son disappeared. 2: A man and his wife move into a house which is missing a crystal skull and dig up the man's great grandfather. 3: A killer haunts the house of a police detective. 4: A house that was built over a healing spring is inherited by a man's wife when her husband is killed by his brother, who wants to demolish the house.
The only common themes which tied these films together were title and being produced by Sean S. Cunningham. I really liked the first 2 because the first film was a more serious horror and a horror classic. The second film was a horror comedy, which is one of my favorite genres, but only from the 1980s, which this was. It was even made in the magic year of 1987 (golden age of modern cinema, see other posts). Number 3 had nothing to do with any of the others, mostly because nobody moved into the haunted house to get the film started. However, it did have Lance Henriksen who played Bishop in Aliens and Alien 3. Number 4 brought back William Katt as Roger Cobb, but his character died at the beginning. I rate them like so: 1 awesome, 2 good, 3 bad, 4 bad. I would recommend the first 2, but not the others.

Jennifer 8 (1992)

An American mystery directed by Bruce Robinson, starring Andy Garcia, Uma Thurman, Lance Henriksen, Kathy Baker and John Malkovich.
A cop is trying to catch a serial killer. A blind girl who "witnessed" the man before his last killing is questioned and falls in love with the cop.
Terrible, horrible and atrocious. The plot was desultory in it's mimicry of other cop flicks. The characters were unconvincing and the acting was poor at best. The bald police detective who questions the "loose cannon" cop had a cold in one scene! The video led me to think that this was newer than the date would indicate because of close shots, underexposure and fast editing. We do, however, get a split-second, underexposed glimpse of Uma Thurman's boobs. The audio was even worse. Dialogue volume and importance of the lines delivered had an inverse relationship. That is to say, the more important the dialogue, the lower the volume. Andy Garcia's shouting also became incoherent at times. The soundtrack music seemed to fit well though. Overall, poor production value and lack of originality make this torture to watch. I rate it bad. DO NOT WATCH!!!