It wasn’t always called "The Wedding Album," but over the years, Duran Duran’s self-titled 1993 album has taken on the name to avoid being confused with their 1981 debut (also self-titled). Whatever you want to call it,  you may be surprised (if you’re just a casual Duran Duran fan or have never heard of them at all) to discover that it’s one of the group’s deepest and most emotionally appealing collection of songs.

The incredibly sultry and downright despondent "Come Undone" emerges halfway through as the stand-out track that, along with "Ordinary World," makes you feel pretty good about feeling so sad. And the hypnotic sounds of "Love Voodoo" and "UMF"will have you hitting replay as you dance along to your CD player.

As a longtime Duran Duran fan, I have always loved the more well-known albums "Rio" and "Seven and the Ragged Tiger" (what devoted DD fan could ever deny loving "The Reflex" or "Union of the Snake"?) But as a lover of great music that is timeless and not limited to just the 80s, I can’t help but praise the melancholy madness of  this particular wedding.

It's been a while since I've seen a really good horror movie and the ones I have seen are so bad and just plain disgusting that I think I've been turned off the genre forever...The rise of  "torture porn" (and maybe it's just me who thinks this, but hopefully not) has not been a good thing. The poster for one of the "Saw" movies is probably the least threatening-looking and tamest of the lot...the ones for both "Hostel" films being SO bad they can't even be posted here without possibly traumatizing an innocent reader.

Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer the illusion of  scary, not the scary itself...gore has quickly become a replacement for what should be atmospheric and implied scares.  Last year I tried to watch both "Hostel" flicks...and couldn't make it through either. The premise alone (Americans traveling to a small town in Eastern Europe where they pay for the "opportunity" to brutalize and kill kidnapped tourists) is a morally difficult one to grasp, even for those of who have long been a fan of the genre (horror, that is, not torture.)

I turned the second off at least halfway through, but not before the damage had been done...a scene with two women, one enjoying killing the other one in almost orgasmic delight (basking in her blood), made me so sick i thought i was going to vomit. There was a point in my life when I could handle some of  the "Saw" movies, but I've since grown tired of them and am not in that "dark" place anymore where I need a shocking jolt to distract me from life's problems.

For truly great cinema thrills, you can't beat something like "The Others" or "The Turn of  The Screw." I think I'm officially through with the hardcore stuff (unless, of course, there are zombies involved.)

Consider yourself very lucky if you’ve never fallen like Bud and Deanie in Splendor in the Grass — a fairly well-known, but often underrated Natalie Wood film that speaks volumes about how dangerous emotions can be. I haven’t seen the film in a long time, but it doesn’t matter because I could share (if you so desired) frame by frame just exactly what happens. Let me tell you, the movie might be pretty, but it’s not always romantic…it’s such a huge storm of feelings that I can only handle it every few years.

The title is taken from a line in a William Wordsworth poem, and it appropriately underscores how often innocence and sexuality are at odds, yet similar in their euphoria.

In one startling, heartbreaking scene, Deanie’s character (Wood) is taking a bath and has already started to show signs of being affected by her feelings for Bud (Warren Beatty). Her mother — with good intentions, even if they are smothering — is concerned about her daughter’s "purity." Deanie, suddenly covering herself and standing up in the tub, shouts "No, Mom! I’m not spoiled. I’m not spoiled, Mom!" It’s a scene years ahead of its time in its depiction of the messiness of first love — shocking in its bluntness, almost tragic in its vulnerability.

Few films have left such a mark on me, but Splendor in the Grass is particularly special because of its resonating power over the years. Anyone who has loved just a little too much in her (or his) life can probably understand how the wrong kind of love can put you in the hospital…as happens with Deanie. (Did I mention how outstanding Natalie Wood is here??)

As with any classic, its age doesn’t matter. Love changes in form over the years, but its effects can be equally smashing or uplifting. We want to feel passionately. To go through life without any interests or enthusiasm is awful…but sometimes how strongly we feel about someone zaps everything else out of us. The cost of loving someone else is sometimes detrimental to our own well-being.

Splendor in the Grass dealt with sex and sexuality in an honest and sincere way that current films would not be able to…and it recognized that teenagers and young adults have the power to love and want things they may not be capable of handling so early in their lives.

I LOVE the accordion, though maybe not as much as Steve Urkel did.  I think it should be appreciated and even seen as sexy (if used right). Huey Lewis and The News put an album out in late 1988 ("Small World") that used the accordion in a wonderful and tastefully wacky way...

On one of the Korgis' songs I've been listening to you can hear whispers of the quirky musical instrument. The track (called "Hunger") is appropriately titled because it makes you feel the singer's longing for someone, something,  he can never have...he sounds like a less theatrical, more melancholy Barry Manilow, with his own "Mandy" thing going on...

"Hunger" is haunting, seductive and somehow makes you want to tango.

Every once in a while you discover a horror film that makes you wrestle with the ending for days afterward. It seeps into you and causes restless sleep, and not just because it's scary. Based on the Stephen King novella of the same name, The Mist mixes the unimaginable with the all-too-familiar and may very well make you feel uncomfortable and unnerved. And like so many of Stephen King's works, this film takes you somewhere you think of as safe -- in this case, the grocery store -- and makes it the creepiest place around.

The incredible cast (including Thomas Jane and Andre Braugher playing neighbors pitted against each other) couldn’t have done a better job...though maybe Marcia Gay Harden might have toned it down JUST a tad. She plays a religious fanatic the way it’s been played in countless horror films before (think Piper Laurie in Carrie, but slightly less bitter).  I love it though, when a man she’s trying to preach to responds with: "I do believe in God, I just don’t think He’s the vengeful, bloodthirsty (replace curse word with family friendly word here) you make him out to be."

Whereas I don’t remember the book being so deep...the movie really captures the current cultural divide and the absolutes people cling to so desperately, often causing them to lash out at others who politely disagree.

I won’t ruin the ending, but let’s just say it blindsides you. It throws out so much that really gets to you: nail-biting suspense...humanity...inhumanity (a lot of the people are far worse than the supernatural creatures they battle inside the grocery store), emotions...tough, protective women...sensitive, protective men...

The Mist is an intense experience and never quite the film you're expecting, a combination making it a cut above (way above!) all the other horror films you've seen until now. The only complaint I have? Someone needs to teach Thomas Jane (who otherwise is amazing in this!) how to properly cry.