Wizards (1977)

   Ralph Bakshi's innovative post-apocalyptic vision of ruin and technological warfare is not for the kiddies, despite the PG rating. Instead, it offers creative hand drawn animation and food for thought for adults and teenagers who might find it's content a springboard for discussion.

   Thousands of years after nuclear war, most of mankind has transformed into disgusting dribbling mutants. Meanwhile, the ancestors of the earth have come to stay- fairies, dwarves, elves, and the like. One night, a fairy woman gives birth to twins; one, Avatar standing for all that is gentle and good, the other, Blackwolf, representing evil and corruption.

   After growing up and defeating Blackwolf (voiced by Steve Gravers) once in battle, Avatar (voiced by Bob Holt) retreats to live a life of access with his female companion Elinore (voiced by Jesse Welles.) Meanwhile, the evil Blackwolf lingers underground  and plans his revenge, using Nazi Germany and Hitler as his inspiration for a reign of terror.

Four Rooms (1995)

For reasons I cannot fully explain, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, and laughed throughout. Blame it on my crazy sense of humor. Blame it on my love of gratuitous film violence and insanity. But mostly, blame it on Tim Roth. Roth's manic, inspired portrayal of swishy, spasticated, neurotic bellhop "Ted" resulted in one of the most entertaining characters I've seen in a while.

    Here's the deal- "Four Rooms" is a pseudo-anthology film featuring four segments written and directed by four filmmakers. Each segment follows Ted (Roth) through one insane New Year spent at a hotel and punctuated by violence, weird sexuality, and mutilation. Three of the segments are directed by filmmakers I'm not really familiar with, and the fourth is done by Tarantino.

   I liked all of the stories in the film, but in different ways. I didn't really know what to make of the first one. A coven of witches staying at the hotel, played by prominent '90s icons such as Madonna and Lili Taylor, discover they need sperm to complete their witchy potion to bring the goddess Diana to life. And who else for the job but twitchy hotel bellboy Roth?