OK, first things first. IF YOU HAVE SEEN THIS MOVIE, DO NOT TELL ANYBODY HOW IT ENDS. Not your roommate, not your little brother, not the people behind you in line. And please don't e-mail me about it either, because I am not letting ANYTHING leak onto this page. Last weekend I had to shush two guys in the lobby who were about to ruin it for the whole line waiting for the 7:15. I am begging you.

Here is all you get: Bruce Willis plays Malcolm Crowe, a child psychologist in Philadelphia who takes on a scared, lonely little boy named Cole (Haley Joel Osment). Cole has a secret, and it's the one from the commercials: "I see dead people." That's it. That's all I'm saying. What I WILL say is that Haley Joel Osment gives one of the best kid performances I have ever seen, Toni Collette is heartbreaking as his mom, and this is a quiet, slow, creepy movie that trusts you to pay attention. I've seen it three times and I'd go again tonight.

It's 1957, right after Sputnik goes up, and everybody in the little town of Rockwell, Maine is nervous about what's in the sky. Then a giant metal robot from outer space crash-lands in the woods, and a boy named Hogarth Hughes makes friends with him. Jennifer Aniston (yes, Rachel from Friends!) is Hogarth's mom, Harry Connick Jr. is great as Dean, the beatnik who runs the junkyard, and a government agent named Kent Mansley is determined to find the Giant and blow him up. It's based on The Iron Man, a book by the English poet Ted Hughes.

This is a gorgeous, old-fashioned, hand-drawn cartoon with a HUGE heart. The scene where Hogarth tries to explain to the Giant what a soul is made me cry into my Coke. The bad news: nobody went to see it! Our theater stuck it in one of the little auditoriums and it was gone in about three weeks. Go find it while you still can, and if you missed it, rent it the second it comes out on video. Half a bucket off only because it ended and I wanted more.

In October 1994, three student filmmakers hiked into the Black Hills Forest near Burkittsville, Maryland to shoot a documentary about a local legend called the Blair Witch. They were never seen again. A year later their footage was found. That's the setup, and a LOT of people in my dorm are still convinced it really happened. (It didn't! It's a movie! The actors just use their real first names, which is a big part of why it feels so real.)

The whole thing is shot on shaky handheld cameras, and it's mostly the three of them getting lost, fighting about the map and hearing noises outside the tent at night. You never actually see anything, which is exactly what makes it scary. Those little stick figures hanging in the trees still creep me out. Some people in my film class thought it was boring, and I get it. And a friendly warning from the girl who works the lobby: that jiggly camera made more than one person sick at our theater. I'm not saying who cleaned it up. I'm just saying don't sit in the front row.

Hugh Grant plays William Thacker, who runs a little travel bookshop in the Notting Hill neighborhood of London. Julia Roberts is Anna Scott, the most famous movie star in the world, who wanders into his shop one day. Then he spills orange juice all over her. Romance ensues! It's written by Richard Curtis, the same guy who wrote Four Weddings and a Funeral, so you know what you're getting: awkward, sweet, very British and really funny.

Rhys Ifans steals every single scene he's in as Spike, William's hopeless Welsh roommate. I went with my roommate and we both cried at the end, and then we both pretended we didn't. And I have had Elvis Costello singing "She" stuck in my head since June.

SIXTEEN YEARS. We waited sixteen years after Return of the Jedi for this! I worked the midnight show on opening night (well, technically the morning of May 19th), and the lobby was packed with Jedi, a couple of Darth Vaders and at least one guy in a homemade Boba Fett helmet. We sold more popcorn that night than in the whole month of April. I didn't get home until almost 4 in the morning and I smelled like butter for two days.

So how was it? Mixed feelings. The good: Liam Neeson is great as Qui-Gon Jinn, Ewan McGregor is a perfect young Obi-Wan, and the podrace on Tatooine is the most exciting thing I've seen in a theater all year. It RULED. So did Darth Maul's double-bladed lightsaber duel at the end, with the huge choir music. The bad: way too much talk about trade routes and taxes, little Anakin yelling "Yippee!", and Jar Jar Binks. Oh, Jar Jar. Every time he opened his mouth, a small part of me died. Final score: three buckets. Four for the podrace alone, minus one for every scene with Jar Jar.

What is the Matrix? I'm not going to explain it, because the movie does it way better than I could. Here's the setup: Keanu Reeves is Thomas Anderson, a computer programmer by day and a hacker called Neo by night. Laurence Fishburne is Morpheus, a mysterious guy in cool sunglasses who offers him a choice between a red pill and a blue pill. Take the red pill and you find out the truth about the world... and it is NOT pretty. Carrie-Anne Moss is totally awesome as Trinity, and Hugo Weaving is super creepy as Agent Smith.

And the action! The lobby shootout, the kung fu training ("I know kung fu"), and that shot on the rooftop where Neo bends way back in slow motion to dodge the bullets while the camera swings all the way around him. Everybody in my film class has a theory about how they did it. I saw it five times this spring and I'd go again. Hands down the coolest movie of the year. Whoa.

1. Casablanca (1942) - Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and the best ending ever filmed. Here's looking at you, kid.
2. Singin' in the Rain (1952) - Gene Kelly dancing in a downpour. Pure happiness on film.
3. Rear Window (1954) - Hitchcock! Jimmy Stewart stuck in a wheelchair spying on his neighbors, and Grace Kelly being the coolest person alive.
4. The Wizard of Oz (1939) - We watched it every year when it came on TV. I still hide during the flying monkeys.
5. Star Wars (1977) - The original. No Jar Jar. Just saying.
6. Jaws (1975) - "You're gonna need a bigger boat." I still won't swim in a lake.
7. Some Like It Hot (1959) - Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe, and the greatest last line in movie history.
8. The Princess Bride (1987) - As you wish. My roommate and I can recite the whole thing.
9. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) - "Snakes. Why'd it have to be snakes?"
10. Citizen Kane (1941) - My film professor would fail me if I left it off. (OK, it really is amazing.)

• The Hollywood Neighborhood - more movie and TV fan pages from my neighbors.
• Kevin's UFO Sighting Reports - for my fellow X-Files fans. The truth is out there!
• Brian's PC Help Page - Brian's tips saved my computer (and my term paper) during finals week.
• Homepage of the Month - someday, Reel Talk. Someday.