Brian De Palma

The suspense guy. He makes a lot of big, popular movies. I like about half of them and am annoyed by the other half.

Carrie (1976) -- I finally saw this all the way through, and I like it better than most "horror" movies. Though, like most horror movies, it usually screws up once or twice, usually at the end. In this case, there's no good reason for the house crashing in, or for the hand in the grave sequence (was the girl at the grave such an important character anyway?). But Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie do a good job and it's pretty entertaining. (See Katt Shea Ruben for the sequel, The Rage: Carrie 2.) B

Scarface (1983) -- Rappers and other gangster wannabes seem to have missed the point of this movie, which is to condemn Al Pacino's decadent and violent behavior, and even to make fun of it--he's a clown with tons of cocaine on his nose, etc. But I guess "Say hello to my little friend" and other catch phrases win the day and everyone wants to be like him. At any rate, people like this movie way too much and I find that it's just kind of an average movie with not a whole lot going for it.

The Untouchables (1987) -- Fun-to-watch cops vs. gangster movie. Maybe my favorite De Palma movie. It's one of the few that doesn't annoy me in some way.

The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) -- It's been over ten years since I saw this at the theater, and I don't think I'd necessarily want to see it again from what I remember, but it seemed only marginally entertaining.

Raising Cain (1992) -- When I rented this movie, my attention kept turning to the fish tank screensaver on the computer in the room, so I turned it off. When fish tank screensavers win, you know something's wrong.

Carlito's Way (1993) -- A crappier version of Scarface.

Mission: Impossible (1996) -- For all its bigness, and maybe even enjoyability while watching it, nothing lingers in the mind as soon as it's over. Something about explosions and Tom Cruise: it's all fuzzy. (See John Woo for the sequel, Mission: Impossible II.)

Snake Eyes (1998) -- For some reason, I liked this. It's stylish and among De Palma's best (all Hitchcocky and stuff).