I am not a critic (I am a human being)
Terry Osterhout Pleads For Understanding In a Cold, Heartless World

I love movies. I love watching them and I love making them. I love watching how they make them. DVD's have been the sweetest gift from heaven to me. I love the audio commentaries, widescreen presentation, and all of the extra features. My wife and I rarely go to the movies anymore because I can't enjoy a movie if people are talking and for the price of two people going to a movie, I can own it on DVD and watch it over and over again in the comfort of my home. DVD's have changed my life...I used to spend all of my money getting crazy on alcohol, but now I spend it all getting crazy on movies. Oh, yeah, things get wild when I watch movies. I get way out there.

I moved to the suburbs a while ago, and though a temporary move, it gets lonely. I bought a region-free DVD player so I could watch the movies I love so much from all over the world, as I had really had it with the majority of the Hollywood movies I had seen. My life has never been better. I import movies from all over the world, sometimes without English subtitles, and am taken to wonderful and amazing worlds. I still watch a lot of mainstream movies, but I am happier with as many choices as possible and it just takes too long for American distributors to release the movies I am looking for - especially Japanese releases.

So, while the U.S. government is busy waging war on terrorists, I am busy learning about other cultures through the world of DVDs. If everyone just sat down and watched "Versus," (a Japanese Yakuza/Zombie movie), or "My Sassy Girl," (a bitter-sweet, cheesy Korean love story), the world would have no need for war. Ah, it is a cynical, jaded world though. All of the C.G.I. and the big budgets are draining the creative spirit out of movies and their fans. Everyone is a critic and out for blood! I am not a critic. I have an unrestrained enthusiasm for movies, good or bad, I love them all. I would just as soon watch a porn flick that tries to be good, than a Hollywood movie that doesn't try at all.

In the coming months I'll be profiling and examining my favorite movies and the people who made them. This will include features on prolific cult filmmaker Jess Franco, a feature on Korean cinema, an exploration of the 70's and those hard to find movies you saw on TV late at night as a kid like "The Bermuda Depths" and "Gargoyles." I'll look at Japanese and Chinese cinema and why recent movies from these countries are better than anything that has come out of Hollywood in a long time. If it's original, creative and entertains, I'll cover it. I don't care if its porn or a Made-for-TV movie, if it stirs something in me and I love it, I'll share it with you.

Gauge Our Common Interests....

My Top Fifty Favorite Movies (In no order)

1. Fight Club
2. Le Pact des Loups (The Brotherhood of the Wolf)
3. The Royal Tenenbaums
4. Vidocq
5. Danger Diabolik
6. The Bermuda Depths
7. Dead or Alive (Takashi Miike)
8. Night of the Living Dead
9. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
10. Henry & June
11. I.K.U.
12. The Limey
13. Delamorte Delamore (Cemetary Man)
14. Unbreakable
15. Fellini's 8 ½
16. Legend of Zu
17. Sweet Smell of Success
18. Out of the Past
19. Swashbuckler
20. Betty Blue
21. Charlie's Angels
22. Crying Freeman
23. Vampyros Lesbos
24. Enter the Dragon
25. Time & Tide
26. Chungkin Express
27. Shark Skin Man & Peach Hip Girl
28. Rushmore
29. Razor Blade Smile
30. Score (Radley Metzger)
31. Eyes Wide Shut
32. War Gods of the Deep
33. Leon
34. Boogie Nights
35. Moon Over Tao
36. Traffic
37. Tell Me Something
38. Straw Dogs
39. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
40. Junk
41. Get Carter (1971)
42. Croupier
43. In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar Wai)
44. The Island at the Top of the World
45. Khuda Gawah
46. Kwaidan
47. L`Avventura
48. Lost Highway
49. Mulholland Drive
50. St. John's Wort

Reviews of each and every one of these movies coming soon

(But like just like a woman, Terry reserves the right to change his mind - I.G.)